A Great Joy

Spring 2022 — Soon after joining Baylor University's faculty in 2000, Randall Bradley was inspired by a School of Music colleague's philanthropy to start his own practice of giving a modest amount of money each month to Baylor through payroll deduction.

What began as a small gesture eventually became a more focused personal priority as Randall, who serves as director of Baylor's Center for Christian Music Studies, formed a board of advisors and became involved with Baylor's development office in helping to secure fundraising support for the Center.

"I became more keenly aware of the difference that donors can make in the success of individual program initiatives and in the lives of students," Randall said. Giving back to others, he added, had always been a goal he shared with his wife, Brenda, who died from pancreatic cancer in 2020.

"We began to give more as we were able, from helping individual students and supporting our church and other organizations," he said. "Through the years, giving became one of our greatest joys."

Music's Healing Power

In addition to guiding the Center for Christian Music Studies, Randall serves as the Ben H. Williams Professor of Music and directs the Baylor University Men's Choir, and his passion for music is wide-ranging — literally.

In the years since taking the Men's Choir to Kenya in 2005, he has traveled abroad with several hundred students on short-term mission experiences, primarily to locations in Africa and Malaysia, and those travels have had sometimes profound results. Based on relationships formed in Kenya, for instance, he and his wife — who taught English at McLennan Community College in Waco — joined several of Randall's former students and a former faculty member to create the Komolion Human Development Fund, which Randall said supports education for girls in Kenya to avoid female genital mutilation and early marriage.

"I believe music has the ability to help all people flourish, and I am passionate about helping people to build better lives, experience greater joy, and to build much-needed bridges among all of us," Randall said.

Maximizing Impact

In describing what led him to recently include a gift to Baylor's School of Music through his will, Randall said he was motivated by the opportunity to change lives in the same manner he has seen gifts by others lift up students and programs at the University.

He and Brenda lived "thrifty lives," he said, during the 36 years of their marriage while raising two children — Hannah, who is an organist in Gainesville, Georgia, and Isaac, who serves as a music teacher in the Birdville ISD in the Dallas area.

"The money we accumulated is from two normal people with middle-income professions who never received an inheritance or any significant windfall," he said. "In making a gift to Baylor through my estate plans, I will be able to watch our nest egg continue to grow through the rest of my life, and ultimately our estate gift will make a meaningful impact on the School of Music — much more than we could do during our lifetimes."