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Brad has been battling Cancer for more than a year and a half, I thought I would put something together so we could remember him while he is still with us and can hear our prayers. I read this to Kelda this morning and it is with her blessing I am posting for you all. I hope that it helps us to reflect a bit and thank god for everything we have. Brad is only in his prime at 49 and has so much more to offer.
Brad Pretty
I think I was about 13 when I started working on Mercury Outboards in a Small Basement shop in Carleton Place, Ont. It was there that I met a guy Named Brad. Little did I know that he would end up being a best friend and we would still be close almost 37 years later? Brad was already working at the shop with the cantankerous owner Sandy. Brad and I really did not hit it off that well. He was a bit controlling and I was well “I knew it all”. That struck up a duel for the next few years, but I bit my lip and learned everything I could from the two of them, I still recall the breaking point was an old Mercury 65 4 cylinder that was missing or something like that, I was trying to fix it and Brad was trying to more less take over, to the point I ended up heaving a 3 lbs ball peen at him from about 30 feet. We have been best friends ever since!
Brad grew up in Carleton Place, in a small house on the outskirts of town on the Mississippi River with His Dad El, Mom Betty, Sister Aaron and his brother Bob. He started working on motors at a young age; he worked at Mississippi Lake camping for the longest time as their rental motor guru. Long hair and long beard He could have been Billy Gibbons Stand-In I am sure. He was there to help me through the years, I lived with him more than a couple times over the course of my life, and he would never turn anyone down when they needed a hand. He met his true love and soul mate, Kelda over 20 years ago getting married just this last fall. My wife Linda and I were honored to be his best man and her maid of honor. Brad’s Mother Betty performed the small service with just the 5 of us…until the party later.
Brad! I guess was a wanderer; he seemed to jump from town to town. He worked in St. Zotique Marine for a while where he secured his mercruiser and mariner certified certificates He was already a certified Mercury Tech and 4th class stationary engineer prior to that. He then moved on to Port Colborne, Ontario where he worked for a few years, but like me that small shop in Carleton Place for some reason just draws you back. I can still recall loading up the 72 Chevy Van to go and pick him and his apartment up in the middle of the night and bring him back to Carleton Place.
Brad loved boat racing but 90% of it was spent behind a wrench that was his first love and he did it very well. He wrenched on any motor he could throughout the hayday but loved the 650xs V-bottoms and D-mod Hydro Class. I had not seen brad in a hydro in a long time, other than testing so I let him run a heat of D-mod in my Rig last year at Dunneville, Ont and he was glowing for a week after.
Brad loved the outdoors and he bought a small SHACK (I call it) in the middle of a very small town called Poland (Ontario) population 18 in the summer and 8 in the winter, as he would say. He made the place his own over the years and loved it, he was close to nature, hunting, fishing, chopping wood, growing….UH! flowers in the garden etc.. He was so proud of his little shed he built just a couple years back, he built it right to the “T” of the less than required size for a building permit yet was able to fit everything in it that he wanted, although anything he was working on currently would likely be found in the living room where he could watch formula one racing, OK! Maybe a little Looney Tunes – he loved those as well.
You may all not know Brad but if you have been to Canadian Boat Race in the last 10 years you have seen or heard him for sure. He had to be one of the best Announcers of late. He would make sure he had all the names and numbers right, use the old terminology for the engines and explain all this to the crowd which would draw them right in, he loved announcing for the 20-H heats.
Over the last 20 years he has pretty much stayed put in his little shack with his love Kelda, he struck a friendship with pretty much everyone in the little town called Poland and I think everyone from a 25 Mile radius knew who he was, he worked in the bush at the sawmill, where a big tree thought it would take one of his legs, but he fought through that and the piece of titanium rod that was holding his leg together can now be found mounted to a Quincy Visu-Matic Throttle that he constructed as a pipe puller for his koenig project he had been working on for the last few years. He plowed snow for the township, he poured Babbitt bearings for the locals, I think he could pretty much do anything he put his mind too.
Brad has been working with me at my shop for the last couple years last fall they found Cancer in his bladder, he fought that and beat it, Next they found half of his right lung full of cancer, he fought through that and was told he was clear he came back to work this spring and worked for three months with his right arm numb, he would not tell me and just worked through it; finally he went to the hospital to be informed he had brain cancer, still positive he would continue to fight. He went though extensive treatment but finally has been told there is no cure.
Brad is a fighter, he fought this and is still fighting today, I saw him yesterday for a few hours and he is in constant pain but we talked about old times, our road trips, boat racing, we had some laughs and shared some tears. I pray for a break in the pain but I fear this is the last hurdle in a long battle. I would just ask that you can share a prayer for him and his family over the next few weeks. Brad My friend, I love you like a brother and I pray you feel no more pain and just focus on the good times over the next days.
Sincerely,
Dave and Linda Scott.
Brad Pretty
I think I was about 13 when I started working on Mercury Outboards in a Small Basement shop in Carleton Place, Ont. It was there that I met a guy Named Brad. Little did I know that he would end up being a best friend and we would still be close almost 37 years later? Brad was already working at the shop with the cantankerous owner Sandy. Brad and I really did not hit it off that well. He was a bit controlling and I was well “I knew it all”. That struck up a duel for the next few years, but I bit my lip and learned everything I could from the two of them, I still recall the breaking point was an old Mercury 65 4 cylinder that was missing or something like that, I was trying to fix it and Brad was trying to more less take over, to the point I ended up heaving a 3 lbs ball peen at him from about 30 feet. We have been best friends ever since!
Brad grew up in Carleton Place, in a small house on the outskirts of town on the Mississippi River with His Dad El, Mom Betty, Sister Aaron and his brother Bob. He started working on motors at a young age; he worked at Mississippi Lake camping for the longest time as their rental motor guru. Long hair and long beard He could have been Billy Gibbons Stand-In I am sure. He was there to help me through the years, I lived with him more than a couple times over the course of my life, and he would never turn anyone down when they needed a hand. He met his true love and soul mate, Kelda over 20 years ago getting married just this last fall. My wife Linda and I were honored to be his best man and her maid of honor. Brad’s Mother Betty performed the small service with just the 5 of us…until the party later.
Brad! I guess was a wanderer; he seemed to jump from town to town. He worked in St. Zotique Marine for a while where he secured his mercruiser and mariner certified certificates He was already a certified Mercury Tech and 4th class stationary engineer prior to that. He then moved on to Port Colborne, Ontario where he worked for a few years, but like me that small shop in Carleton Place for some reason just draws you back. I can still recall loading up the 72 Chevy Van to go and pick him and his apartment up in the middle of the night and bring him back to Carleton Place.
Brad loved boat racing but 90% of it was spent behind a wrench that was his first love and he did it very well. He wrenched on any motor he could throughout the hayday but loved the 650xs V-bottoms and D-mod Hydro Class. I had not seen brad in a hydro in a long time, other than testing so I let him run a heat of D-mod in my Rig last year at Dunneville, Ont and he was glowing for a week after.
Brad loved the outdoors and he bought a small SHACK (I call it) in the middle of a very small town called Poland (Ontario) population 18 in the summer and 8 in the winter, as he would say. He made the place his own over the years and loved it, he was close to nature, hunting, fishing, chopping wood, growing….UH! flowers in the garden etc.. He was so proud of his little shed he built just a couple years back, he built it right to the “T” of the less than required size for a building permit yet was able to fit everything in it that he wanted, although anything he was working on currently would likely be found in the living room where he could watch formula one racing, OK! Maybe a little Looney Tunes – he loved those as well.
You may all not know Brad but if you have been to Canadian Boat Race in the last 10 years you have seen or heard him for sure. He had to be one of the best Announcers of late. He would make sure he had all the names and numbers right, use the old terminology for the engines and explain all this to the crowd which would draw them right in, he loved announcing for the 20-H heats.
Over the last 20 years he has pretty much stayed put in his little shack with his love Kelda, he struck a friendship with pretty much everyone in the little town called Poland and I think everyone from a 25 Mile radius knew who he was, he worked in the bush at the sawmill, where a big tree thought it would take one of his legs, but he fought through that and the piece of titanium rod that was holding his leg together can now be found mounted to a Quincy Visu-Matic Throttle that he constructed as a pipe puller for his koenig project he had been working on for the last few years. He plowed snow for the township, he poured Babbitt bearings for the locals, I think he could pretty much do anything he put his mind too.
Brad has been working with me at my shop for the last couple years last fall they found Cancer in his bladder, he fought that and beat it, Next they found half of his right lung full of cancer, he fought through that and was told he was clear he came back to work this spring and worked for three months with his right arm numb, he would not tell me and just worked through it; finally he went to the hospital to be informed he had brain cancer, still positive he would continue to fight. He went though extensive treatment but finally has been told there is no cure.
Brad is a fighter, he fought this and is still fighting today, I saw him yesterday for a few hours and he is in constant pain but we talked about old times, our road trips, boat racing, we had some laughs and shared some tears. I pray for a break in the pain but I fear this is the last hurdle in a long battle. I would just ask that you can share a prayer for him and his family over the next few weeks. Brad My friend, I love you like a brother and I pray you feel no more pain and just focus on the good times over the next days.
Sincerely,
Dave and Linda Scott.
Godspeed Brad and prayers to your family
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