Subject: Very Sad News
From: James Poterba (poterba@MIT.EDU)
Date: Wed Feb 09 2005 - 22:25:54 EST
Dear Program Members -
I am writing with very sad news about our colleague David
Bradford. As the news story below explains, David was very badly burned
yesterday, and he is currently at the Temple University Burn Center in
Philadelphia. He is apparently heavily sedated and cannot receive
calls. The Burn Center does not accept flowers. Those of you who wish to
send cards may send them to:
Temple Burn Center
Second Floor, Parkinson Pavilion
3401 North Broad St., Philadelphia, PA 19140
I will write again as soon as I have any further information.
Jim
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A Princeton University economics professor and former presidential adviser
was in critical condition Wednesday after being burned while carrying a
blazing Christmas tree from his home.
David F. Bradford, who served as a top economic adviser to former President
George H.W. Bush, suffered third-degree burns over half his body early
Tuesday morning, police said.
Bradford, 66, was being treated at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia.
The fire was caused by one of about 10 lit candles on the tree, which had
been in the house since December, police told The Times of Trenton for
Wednesday's newspapers.
Bradford apparently was upstairs when his wife told him the tree was on
fire. He was critically injured while trying to carry the tree out of the
home, the newspaper reported.
Firefighters quickly put out the fire, limiting damage to the house.
A professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University's
Woodrow Wilson School, Bradford also holds positions with the National
Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Mass., the American Institute for
Public Policy Research in Washington, and the New York University School of
Law.
"All of David's colleagues and friends here at the school were shocked and
saddened to learn of this tragic event, and our thoughts are with him and
his family, hoping for his successful recovery," said Anne-Marie Slaughter,
dean of the Woodrow Wilson School.
From November 1991 to January 1993, Bradford was a member of the
President's Council of Economic Advisers. During a stint from 1975 to 1976
at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, he helped produce a text on tax
reform considered a forerunner of the major U.S. income tax reform enacted
in 1986, according to Princeton University's Web site.
