This memorial website was created in the memory of our dear friend, Brad Wallace, who was born on July 3, 1954 and passed away on August 9, 2013. We created this online site to encourage Brad's family, friends, and colleagues to share their tributes, memories, stories, and photographs. It will create a permanent testament to what Brad meant to so many people. Please visit often and feel free to share!
Tributes
Leave a tributeLike me, you are turning 70 this year! So many fond memories!...would of loved to take you sailing on my 43 foot catamaran...and venture to Catalina like many past times we did! Still running my manufacturing business and not retired....just tired!! Enjoying life to the fullest like we've always done!...I have two grand daughters 5 and 2...so much fun! Miss you and your family!
I miss you still. Cannot hear a banjo solo or a High Strung song with out thinking about you. Still truly one of the very best humans I have ever known. Your memory helps me be a better person.
Lots of love to all the Wallace family, thinking of you guys today.....
Carol Burke Cuz
What a great time we had! Thinking of you today! You've touched everyone's lives! miss you!
I especially miss sharing our inside jokes that only we would know. I would like to redo my favorite BW song "Kleenex Carnation" that we recorded many ears ago as a tribute to you. Not sure when I will find time, but will attempt when the mood strikes!
My birthday is coming up and I will be thinking of you each and every birthday on August 9th.
Seeing you in the future! (You will probably need to lower a rope for me and haul me up and explain that we like to record together ☺)
I'm still developing music material we started on together and worked on together to a certain stage - some unfinished collaborations with you -adding a piano phrase here or a sung verse there,working on a harmony. I have these partial recordings listed, orgnized and catalogued. It would be a delight to work with your famous "Brad notebook" .With our dear mutual friends we could possibly bring a new "Brad Song" or a more refined version of a Brad Song to fruition. Somehow, I think Brad would help us. All in due time, I guess. I do miss Brad, my dear, special, honest and true friend. I know we all share the joy Brad has added to our lives. He was energetic, talented and kind. A great friend.
Cousin Carol Burke
I miss you. I cannot hear a banjo without thinking of you. Such a beautiful spirit and soul. Hopefully you are writing songs and playing piano or banjo. Spent some time with Ann, she still loves you and all others pale in comparison.
Em
I will hold you in prayer and know that God holds you always---thank you for the time of friendship we did have...until we meet again, Brad, I send love and blessings....and now that I am reminded that you are a July 3rd birthday, too, I will keep you with my birthday celebration!!
p.s. The library is on Bradley Street!
Love,
Cousin Carol Burke
Tyler Harrison
Love and miss you little brother.
In Gods love until we meet and play again.
to the animal shelter.
Paula
In honor of Brad's 60th birthday, July 3, 2014. I invite you to "give 60."
Let's see if we can get 60 people to give 60 minutes of their time, talent, or treasure in any way that honors Brad. Then share your gift of 60 on this site.
Leave a Tribute
Like me, you are turning 70 this year! So many fond memories!...would of loved to take you sailing on my 43 foot catamaran...and venture to Catalina like many past times we did! Still running my manufacturing business and not retired....just tired!! Enjoying life to the fullest like we've always done!...I have two grand daughters 5 and 2...so much fun! Miss you and your family!
Why not?
Everyone reading this knows that Brad was about as kind and considerate a man as there ever has lived. So I hope you appretiate the irony of this story.
Around 1976 our band, American Ingenuity got a gig at an italian restaraunt in Anaheim, called Tropianos. There was a big stage and dance floor and it was our first regular gig. One evening we had a particularly nice crowd and the dance floor was full of enthusiastic youngsters. After a particularly fun set some kids came up to the stage to talk to the musicians.
Brad said to one of the boys, "I can see you really like music, do you play an instrument?" The boy looked down and said, "no I can't."
"Of course you can," Brad responded. "Why don't you play the clarinet?"
The boy repeated, "I can't." But Brad would not be disuaded. He said, "Why don't you play the piano or the trumpet?"
"I can't," repeated the boy. "Why not?" asked Brad.
"Because I ain't got no arms," the boy said. Brad was mortified. He noticed then that the boy really did not have arms (Brad had thought he was just dancing around with his arms in his shirt as children sometimes do.)
Finally, in a very flustered voice Brad said, "You can be a singer."
Introductory Prayer
Introductory Prayer from the Life Celebration for Brad Wallace:
Father God, Lord of Heaven and Earth; Eternal Provider, Healer, and Comforter; we are gathered here today to give You thanks for, and say goodbye to, my brother, Bradley Wallace.
We know that you have designed the role of earthly fathers to be many things: protector, provider, comforter, patient teacher, husband, lover, companion, ... In fact, we are to be examples to our families of what You are. They are supposed to be able to look at us, at our lives and character and learn from this what their perfect, Heavenly Father is like.
The fact is that we aren’t perfect; my brother wasn’t perfect, our father wasn’t and I’m not either. But he was wonderful, nevertheless. He was very aware that he probably didn’t have a lot of time to spare so he invested it wisely. He was a good provider and worked very hard to give his family everything he could. He spent as much time with them as possible. He taught them at every opportunity. He poured out love on all of us, his friends and family, and told us so. He was so proud of his family. He loved his wife, Ann, and he showed it. He taught them by example to love life, to laugh as often as possible, to make music and sing at every opportunity, to enjoy nature, to love each other and their friends, to be available when people needed them, to share what You have given to them with those in need, to enjoy being alone, to be willing to try new things, to love to travel and meet new people, to be creative and willing to make mistakes in the process, and then to learn from them and go on.
In fact, he did a good job. We are proud to have had such a man for our brother, father and friend, and we thank You for him.
Now Lord, we ask that your Holy Spirit would bring anything which remains unresolved with Bradley to our minds; any hurts, any perceived slights, any unforgiveness, in fact, anything at all that comes to mind that we need to deal with. (long pause) And now, we release these things to You, Lord. We forgive Brad for not being perfect. And we release each of these things to You. We say that we have been truly blessed to have had him as father, brother and friend. We acknowledge that in many cases, You have used him to teach, guide and mold us into what we are. We thank you for your provision.
Thank you Lord; You are a Great and Glorious God. We love and worship You for what You have accomplished through Brad. He will live on through all of our great memories, through what he taught and modeled to us, and through his wife and children. We are better people because of him. And now we let him go.
We now release him to you, Lord. We release him into Your presence. We miss him terribly and look forward to the day when we will be reunited. We say good-bye to him for now.
Good bye, Brad. See you soon.
Amen.
A Life Well Lived
This video slideshow was shown at the Celebration of Life for Brad on September 7, 2013 at the Unity Center in San Diego. It provides a glimpse of Brad's passions in life, including family, music, teaching, and travel. Thanks to all who contributed photographs, especially Brad's sister Wendy and his brother Scott. The opening tune in the soundtrack is Brad's and Dan Reed's original, "Hot Tamales." Brad plays keyboards and sings the lead on "Under the Boardwalk" and harmony vocals on "Forever Young" and "The Lion Sleeps Tonight."