The History of Braddock Educational Success Team

Braddock Tutoring at the University of Oregon’s Lundquist College of Business provides tutoring for business and pre-business students requiring academic assistance. It was the first Braddock-funded operating program and was created at the direction of Bob Braddock, Sr. through a hands-on collaboration between the Foundation and the grantee. The program has since served as a model for the Braddock approach to grant-making.

History

Bob Braddock was born in Oregon in 1914 and raised there, graduating from the University of Oregon’s Lundquist College of Business in 1937. He was a scholar athlete who represented the university in basketball and football. Later in life, Bob became a respected trustee of the university.

Shortly after the outbreak of World War II, he was commissioned in the United States Navy and served in the Pacific until the end of hostilities in 1945. Following his discharge, he became a partner in Braddock, Logan, and Valley, launching a long and successful career developing property and building homes in the San Francisco Bay area.

Bob never forgot his modest beginnings and the people in his life who assisted him and provided the moral and spiritual inspiration that enabled him in his significant achievements. Towards the end of his life, Bob began to plan a way to thank those people. To do this, he and Lois, his wife of more than fifty years, created the Robert C. and Lois Braddock Charitable Foundation.

Following Bob’s death in 1995, the Foundation was formally established, with Lois Braddock as President, and Bob’s children — Cherie Keemar and Robert C. Braddock, Jr. — as Directors.

One of the first actions taken by the Foundation was to establish the BEST Program (Braddock Educational Success Team) at the University of Oregon’s Lundquist College of Business. This innovative program provides tutoring and mentoring to any student seeking academic assistance. The model has been successfully implemented at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, FL, where tutoring services have been targeted towards helping scholar athletes balance the rigors of academic achievement with representing their university in the athletic arena.

Bob Braddock was described by his family and those who knew him as a man who achieved greatness without ever forgetting his humble beginnings. The Braddock Foundation is dedicated to helping people with special needs, to rewarding those efforts that deserve support, and to protecting the environment that gave this athlete, sportsman and outdoorsman so much joy.