LITTLE ROCK — Though silent, Don Bragg’s office speaks volumes. The awards on the walls attest to his professional excellence as a forester and researcher, but it’s the crayon drawings that show where his heart was.
“When you go in his office, the walls are full of awards,” said Mike Blazier, dean of the College of Forestry, Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Arkansas at Monticello. “When you walk up to his office door, there are crayon drawings from his children. Right over his desk there’s a big yellow construction paper posting that says ‘I love you daddy,’ which was from his son when he was 4.
“For everything he accomplished, it was his children that were most dear,” Blazier said.
Hope and Don Bragg at the Arkansas Agricultural Hall of Fame lunch in Little Rock. (U of A System Division of Agriculture file photo by Angie Freel)
Don, his wife, Hope, and their children Kenny, 22, and Elizabeth, 19, of Monticello, Arkansas, are being remembered by their friends and colleagues with great affection and respect. The family was killed in a house explosion on Dec. 30 in Michigan, a blast that also injured their son Stephen, 16, and Hope’s father, Richard Pruden. Both remained hospitalized on Wednesday. Investigators are calling the event a “fuel-air explosion.”
GoFundMe fundraisers have been set up for Stephen Bragg, 16, https://gofund.me/d32eff21, and Richard Pruden, https://www.gofundme.com/f/richard-pruden-medical-expenses.
Don was a project leader for the U.S. Forest Service with an office at the University of Arkansas at Monticello. Hope was a STEM instructor for the Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service’s 4-H program. The two imbued their children with a love of science, technology and history, and the family shared those interests together on hikes, archaeological digs and 4-H youth development activities.
Blazier knew Don Bragg for more than two decades. In forestry, their careers often crossed. He remembered Don as being inquisitive and insightful, an excellent scientist and a bit of a sci-fi movie nerd.