A Friend Remembered: Brad Ableson

My friendship with Bradford E."Brad" Ableson began 20 years ago when the U. S. Navy ship he was serving as chaplain visited Hong Kong.

As the chaplain assigned to the U. S. Navy Contracting Department in the then-British Crown Colony, I was a member of the party that greeted each visiting U. S. warship. Maybe it was the fact that we were both from the great "fly-over" land more commonly known as the Great Plains (he from Oklahoma, and I from Kansas); or maybe it was that we were both Navy chaplains having the time of our young lives in the Western Pacific theater, but we spent a lot of time together during his ship's five day port visit.

Brad was witty, irreverent, insightful, intellectual, and deeply spiritual: Qualities not commonly found in coexistence in clergy (especially in my case, which made Brad all the more fun to be with). He was a man of great accomplishments: Graduating from the Yale Divinity School (the photo above was taken from a recent Yale Divinity School newsletter), and the Columbia Theological Seminary in Atlanta, where he earned a Doctor of Ministry degree. However, Brad would never tell you these things. You'd have to read it, or hear it, elsewhere. (Click here to read more!)

I remember meeting Brad and his lovely wife, Julia, in the San Francisco International Airport during one of my many stop-overs between Hong Kong and Kansas. It was my first time meeting Julia. It was apparent that they not only loved one another, but that they loved being with one another.

Some ten years or so passed before Brad and I renewed our friendship. At that time, Brad was in the Navy Chief of Chaplains Office in Washington, D. C., and I was in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. In the intervening years, he had served two tours with the Marine Corps, including time in combat during the first Gulf War; and he was the chaplain at the Presidential Retreat at Camp David during the Clinton administration.

When he landed in the Chief of Chaplains Office, he cheerfully became my greatest and most reliable source for information about the machinations of the Chaplain Corps. He would often preface his statements with the phrase, "The tom-toms are saying. . . "

Brad died at age 50 on Tuesday, February 17, after a long bout with cancer. (Click here for obituary.) We last saw each a year ago at a conference for senior Navy chaplains. It was going to be the last of the annual meetings for us, since Brad and I were retiring from active-duty long before the next one.

February 17 is also the 50th birthday anniversary of my brother, Olian Calvin Alexander. Is it ironic that as I celebrate the birthday of one brother, I mourn the death of another?

Certainly, the day is coming when I will again enjoy the company of all of my brothers and sisters in Christ. Brad will be there. Indeed, Brad is there now.