Hope College alumnus and athletic standout Floyd E. Brady died of
natural causes on Sunday, Feb. 3, in Chicago, Ill. He was 62.
Brady, a 1968 Hope graduate, still ranks as Hope's all-time leading
basketball scorer. He was voted the most valuable basketball player
in the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) as both a
junior and senior. He ended his career with 2,004 points which at the
time was exceeded by only four other players, including Cazzie Russell
of the University of Michigan and Dave De Busschere of the University
of Detroit. He was also an all-conference high jumper in track.
His name still appears on several Hope career basketball records,
including season scoring average (31.0 ppg), field goals in a season
(250), and rebounding average (14.0 rpg).
The son of a Baptist minister in Chicago, he was an active student
leader at Hope and will be long remembered for addressing a community
gathering in Holland's Centennial Park at the time of the death of
Martin Luther King, Jr. in April, 1968.
He had stayed connected with the college, especially in recent years.
He was the keynote speaker at the dedication of the college's Martha
Miller Center for Global Communication and addressed a Students of
Color Leadership Conference at Hope this past fall. He joined alumni
teammates in cutting down the nets with Hope played its final game at
the Holland Civic Center in 2005. This past December he hosted Hope
business students in Chicago.
At the time of his death he was serving as director of corporate
outreach and recruitment for the undergraduate program at the College
of Business Administration at the University of Illinois Chicago. He
also served as Director of the Rev. Dr. H.B. Brady Memorial.
He previously served as President of the CNA Insurance Companies
Foundation, which serves as the principal funding entity for CNA
social program investments. He was responsible for strategically
positioning the $40 million Foundation and CNA employees through
voluntarism, to impact key social issues.
Brady is also the former Vice President of INROADS, Inc. He provided
leadership and management support to eight INROADS affiliate
operations and created new INROADS affiliates in numerous cities.
Additionally, he served as Associate Chaplain at Dartmouth College,
Special Assistant to the Deputy Commissioner of the Department of
Mental Health in New York City, and Regional Director of A Better
Chance (ABC). ABC is a national not for profit talent search
organization that places students of color in outstanding college
preparatory independent boarding schools. His civic activities
included member of the Economic Club of Chicago; advisory board of
directors of the College of Business at the University of Illinois
Chicago; Chicago United Task Force on Public School Education; board
member VTC Enterprises; Congressional Awards Council and the Institute
for Athletes in Education.
In addition to holding the Bachelor of Arts degree from Hope College
he received Master of Social Work degree from the Rutgers Graduate
School of Social Work; and the Master of Divinity degree from
Princeton Theological Seminary.
The funeral service will be held Saturday, Feb. 9 at 10 a.m. CT at the Victory Cathedral Church, 105th and Racine, Chicago, Ill. A wake will be held at the church at 9 a.m. CT.