William O. Bradley

William O. "Bud" Bradley was a prominent Reno, Nevada trial attorney whose career spanned more than half a century. A graduate of George Washington University law school, he was admitted to the State Bar of Nevada on December 31, 1950. Before entering the law, he served during World War II as a pilot and flight instructor in the U.S. Navy Air Corps, and he remained a lifelong aviation enthusiast.

Bradley began his practice as a water-rights attorney and later became one of Nevada's best-known plaintiffs' personal injury litigators. In 1955 he co-founded, with partner John Squire Drendel, the Reno law firm now known as Bradley, Drendel & Jeanney. In 1970 he was featured in Time magazine as one of the nation's preeminent personal injury attorneys, and in 1973 he served as co-counsel on a $3.655 million verdict tried in Reno that was recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Bradley's contributions were recognized well beyond the courtroom. The University of Nevada, Reno conferred an honorary Doctor of Laws degree upon him in 1993 and later presented him with its President's Award. A devoted supporter of education, he backed literacy programs, computer labs, and capital development at local schools and at the university. William O. Bradley died on January 17, 2008.