Bradford Sherman Abernethy was born April 19, 1909 in Berwyn, Illinois. He was the son of Dr. William S. Abernethy, who later became pastor of the Calvary Baptist Church in Washington, DC. Bradford Abernethy received his AB degree from Haverford College in Haverford, Pennsylvania in 1930. He then attended Colgate-Rochester Divinity School, in New York, receiving his BD in 1933. After leaving Colgate he received a fellowship to study at Oxford and Edinburgh. (1)
After returning to the States, Abernethy served as Pastor of the First Baptist Church in Columbia, Missouri between 1935 and 1941. In 1941, he accepted a position on the staff of the Federal Council of Churches in New York. He began looking for a college chaplaincy position soon after, and came to Rutgers as Student Counselor and Chaplain in 1945. He was appointed Hill Professor of Bible and Ethics in 1946.
While at Colgate-Rochester, he met [Mary] Jean Beaven, daughter of the school's president Dr. A. W. Beaven and married her in 1933. They had three children: David, born in 1937; William, born in 1939; and Barbara, born in 1944. Jean held an AB in sociology from Mt. Holyoke and a master's from the University of Missouri. She lectured in home economics at Douglass, was an author and editor, and worked with Abernethy in his relief efforts and the open houses he held for students. While at Rutgers, the Abernethy family lived at 147 College Avenue, later moving to 116 College Avenue.
During his tenure at Rutgers, Abernethy became heavily involved in foreign exchange and international relief organizations, such as American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), Operation Crossroads Africa, and World University Service. He took a leave of absence in 1953 until 1955 to direct the AFSC European Student Seminar Program. His involvement in other programs took him to Europe and Africa several times as well. In 1968, the Abernethys lived in Lagos, Nigeria for three months to direct relief efforts for war victims in Nigeria and Biafra. Abernethy also was a civil rights advocate and proponent of sex education.
Abernethy retired from Rutgers in 1974 and continued preaching and teaching abroad. Jean Beaven Abernethy died in 1995 after more than sixty years of marriage. Bradford died in 1998, at the age of 89, in Menlo Park, California.
