Dan was born and raised in Phoenix. His mother was an Arizona Native, and his dad left Illinois for Arizona in the 40s. Church attendance was very important to the Bradford family, and the church matchmaker set young Robert up with a beautiful pianist Named Vivian Owens to accompany his violin. The young lady’s father John Owens ran a woodworking company named Cluers Millwork and one Sunday afternoon asked Robert if he was busy after school and did he want to unload boxcars full of lumber? He did, and they did. For 60+ years. Bob and Vivian.

John Owens entrepreneurial activities were a great inspiration to Robert. Flipping houses, building and maintaining rental properties, running a laundromat and building a woodworking business, all these things were part of “Bradford Enterprises.” One other point of explanation, today if something is nonfunctional, we call for assistance, Bob, not so much. His commitment to DIY in his many activities was such that his son was cleaning and painting rental properties, servicing washers and driers and other such activities from earliest youth. Let’s see, #3’s water heater is on the fritz again, #2’s swamp cooler isn’t cool enough and there’s water on the floor at the Laundry. Oy.

You see, I don’t have a single college credit to my name. Well, I did take a CCW course at Glendale CC, but that’s about it. The credits I DO have are decades of woodworking, building new things and repairing older stuff that didn’t always meet a very high design standard to begin with. When I saw habitat conditions where I live in Northern Arizona, I knew I could help. From the first load of water I picked up in Tusayan for the Thirsty Beasts in GMU 9, to the events that led to the formation of Wildlife Waterworks, to the present day, my only interest has been to improve the lot of the beasts we all love. (to be honest a few Tarantula hawks benefit as well, but that can’t be helped)
Come join the party wont you?

Tish is from Watertown New York. Her family moved to sunny Southern California very early in her life. Those early years in Santa Ana included many days spent at Disneyland.
If you were to attempt to document her life experiences it would take a couple of library shelves A brief review; she left home in her teens, and bumped around California Oregon Nevada and Utah accumulating three children (and now) a host of grandchildren and one great grandchild.
Her journeys eventually landed her in Phoenix where she got together with Dan in 1986. Together they have two daughters and a granddaughter. We moved to the unincorporated community of Parks AZ in 2000. When a door latch snapped a few months ago she remarked “ this is the first place I’ve ever lived long enough for things to wear out!” I think that’s cool.
Tish is a great assistant. Her contributions are less direct, but tremendously valuable. she is a tremendous asset to our organization.