William E. Bradley, Jr.

William Earle Bradley Jr. (January 7, 1913 – September 19, 2000) was an American engineer and businessman who was the first president of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. He spent much of his career in research at Philco. He also spent 10 years doing government work and founded a water-purification business.

Personal life Bradley was born January 7, 1913, in Lansdowne, Pennsylvania. For 41 years he was married to Virginia Althea Meyer, also an employee of Philco. When he died on September 19, 2000, he was survived by two children. He was a member of Wrightstown Friends Meeting.

Career Bradley earned a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 1936, He was a member of Tau Beta Pi and Sigma Xi. In June 1936 he joined Philco as a factory test engineer working on radio receivers. The next year he began working on wide-band amplifiers for television receivers, then in the experimental stage. During World War II he participated in Philco's collaboration with the Radiation Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a collaboration that led to the invention of radar. He later moved to the Institute for Defense Analyses. at the urging of Ed Block, who worked under him at Philco and who spearheaded SIAM's creation. Bradley resigned shortly after, however, citing conflicts with his other activities. In May 1953 he was replaced by Donald B. Houghton.