Lasting Tribute for Bradley Scott Tomberlin

Scholarship

Brothers J.R. Tomberlin, Jeremy Craft, and Albert Cartner have lovingly established a heartfelt tribute to honor Brother Bradley Scott Tomberlin. In a generous act of remembrance, they have committed to donating each semester to the ATO Scholarship Fund, ensuring that a new name is added to the plaque every year during scholarship season, celebrating the enduring impact of their brother’s legacy.

Who was Bradley

Bradley Scott Tomberlin’s last day with us was September 15, 2019. Born on July 29, 1980, to his mother Judy (Teague) Tomberlin and father, the late Richard Tomberlin, in Hopkinsville, KY, Bradley and J.R. grew up together, being less than 3 years apart. He had many friends and excelled in school, graduating at the top of his class at Christian County High School. He went on to graduate from Murray State University with an Engineering degree.

Brad’s friends describe him as passionate about whatever captured his attention at the moment. They remember him as loud, vibrant, and full of life, with a deep loyalty to his friends. Brad loved people and was famous for putting his fraternity brothers in a headlock while exclaiming, “You don’t even know how much I love you!” He genuinely loved life and lived it to the fullest. He is greatly missed by all who knew him.

Brad was absolutely brilliant, and his intelligence served him well in the engineering field, eventually working as a geophysicist in South America. He worked for several large companies worldwide, but his favorite part of every job seemed to be the travel. He loved new adventures and seeing new places.

Outdoors was his favorite place to be. Whether it was hiking through the rainforest, deep sea fishing, hunting, just sitting on a beach, or even sitting on a porch in Kentucky, he felt at home in nature no matter the country.

Family was important to him. Although his job took him all over North and South America, he made sure to visit home several times a year. He always made time to stay with his mother and was J.R.’s children’s favorite uncle, loving and spoiling them endlessly.

Brad died in a tragic helicopter crash on September 15, 2019 outside of Quito, Ecuador.

Tribute

I miss him every day. After this tragedy we wanted to honor him and create a lasting legacy for him and to help ATO. We can’t think of a better way to give back to the brotherhood that helped shape us into who we are today. We all remember being in college and the financial struggle it can be to pay for all the expenses that go along with being a college student. We have some great memories of our years being an ATO at Murray and are thankful we got to spend them with Brad. He was the type of guy that would’ve given anyone the shirt off his back. This lasting tribute for Bradley Scott Tomberlin brings us great joy to honor his legacy by contributing to future ATO brothers college education. 

J.R. Tomberlin

We want to thank J.R., Jeremy and Albert for creating this lasting tribute, continuing our support of growing our Fraternity through scholarship.