Mike Bradner

Bradner attended high school in Indiana and lived in the state of Washington before first moving to Alaska for a summer job on freight boats in the Yukon River. He graduated from University of Alaska Fairbanks. Following his marriage, Bradner became a journalist, first working for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.[1]

In 1965, Bradner became a legislative assistant, and was elected to the state house in his own right during the next election cycle, serving through 1977.[1] He served as Speaker of the Alaska House of Representatives from 1975 to 1977.[2] In 1976, Bradner campaigned as a political independent, for a seat on the Alaska Senate,[3] after losing a Democratic party primary to Richard Greuel.[4] Bradner was a legislative aide to Steve Cowper's gubernatorial administration until resigning the position in January 1987.[5]

Bradner and his first wife Janet raised four daughters. He later married Jeanne, with whom he had two biological daughters, and raised two foster daughters.[6] Bradner died from complications of COVID-19 in Anchorage, Alaska, on February 27, 2021, at age 83, during the COVID-19 pandemic in Alaska, four days short of his 84th birthday.[7]