Dr. David Bradstreet, head of the astronomy department, has taught at Eastern University since 1976, but he began as an undergraduate student in 1972. As we approach Eastern’s centennial anniversary, there is nothing more valuable than speaking with a member of Eastern’s community who has been here for more than half of that time. I went to speak with Bradstreet about his time at Eastern, what he has done for the Eastern community and what the Eastern community has meant to him.
Bradstreet first came to Eastern to run the planetarium. When Eastern first built its planetarium in 1971, it had no one to run it. Bradstreet’s sister-in-law, a student at Eastern, recommended Bradstreet to the dean of Eastern. The dean invited Bradstreet to Eastern, gave him a tour of McInnis and the planetarium and ultimately offered him full tuition to Eastern as an undergraduate, as well as the opportunity to take astronomy courses at Villanova – provided Bradstreet would come and run the planetarium.
The planetarium has been a source of joy and discovery for Bradstreet throughout his time at Eastern. Bradstreet explained that when the observatory was built (“that’s a whole story in itself!”) he became less and less interested in the planetarium. The planetarium became antiquated and no longer interesting to run because it was so limited. However, Bradstreet raised money to upgrade it. In 2006, the planetarium was upgraded to a side-dome digital planetarium. Bradstreet said the digital planetarium was “transformed,” and has been a “fun thing again” for the past 19 years.
In fact, the new planetarium is very advanced. Bradstreet is close friends with the director of the software company that created it, such that he can update the software to include “whatever I could dream up.” The planetarium has created “some stuff that had never been done before and even now contains some stuff that nobody else has.” It’s amazing that our small university has access to software that you cannot get literally anywhere else in the world!
Bradstreet is known in the scientific community for the software he created in the planetarium, Binary Maker 3.0., and the ways his program has made solving light curves easier, as well as his research on binary stars.
I asked Bradstreet about encountering hostility to Christianity in the scientific community. He brushed it off with a smile and an eyeroll. “Used to it,” he said. “People didn’t believe Jesus either.”
As a respected astronomer, why does Bradstreet remain at our small Eastern University? It has not always been easy, nor has it ever been lucrative, to work as a professor at a small school. Bradstreet told me a story about the year of 1982, when he was both a professor at Eastern and a grad student at University of Pennsylvania. Nationwide, the economy was struggling, and “Eastern was belt-tightening,” he said. They decided to cut the astronomy courses and planetarium shows to save money, two-thirds of Bradstreet’s salary. Even when Eastern offered to pay double for Bradstreet to teach physics, it was not enough.
Still, Bradstreet did not leave, trusting that “God will provide.” Sure enough, the very next day the biology teacher at Cabrini University called up Bradstreet: “Do you know anyone who could teach physics for us?” she said. She offered to match the salary Eastern paid. “The day after. Friday afternoon. 4 o’clock,” Bradstreet said. “In 24 hours, God had replaced all my missing salary.” He would go on to teach physics at Cabrini for fourteen years.
Yes, there were difficult times for Bradstreet at Eastern, but “this is where God wants me to be, I’ve never had any doubt about that,” he said. “I can see in retrospect that to be the case.” Bradstreet sees Eastern as a unique institution. “You don’t have to be a Christian or have a certain mindset,” he said. Instead, Eastern is open to “just people” and allows for “creative thought.” But, simultaneously, Eastern draws students who are “very serious about faith as well as academics.” All in all, Bradstreet says, it’s “not just hype.”
The most rewarding part of Bradstreet’s time here is seeing young people find their path and “knowing that I’ve had a small role in some of that,” he said. He is talking about “students who have really taken God’s universe seriously, and their view of God has changed.”
But Bradstreet’s time as a professor at Eastern is almost at an end. He plans to retire next year, at the 50th anniversary of his time teaching here. The fact that “that chapter’s almost over is a little hard to digest… when you love what you do,” he said.
On the other hand, Bradstreet hopes to continue working at Eastern in a consulting capacity, and potentially partially directing work in the planetarium. Bradstreet hopes to build a real planetarium theatre following his retirement, four times the size of our current planetarium – with real seats! – as well as upgrade our telescopes.
So, in his retirement, Bradstreet will not entirely leave Eastern, nor will he stop working. He has “gobs of data that really should be published” and turned into papers, he said. But, when he is no longer tied to teaching at Eastern, Bradstreet hopes to spend more time with his family – including travels to Australia and maybe even the Holy Land!
Although Dr. Bradstreet will certainly be sorely missed, it is inspiring to hear his story. Bradstreet is someone who has been a part of the Eastern community for so long, and he testifies with such conviction, that he feels the presence of God on our campus.
Josh Steen 
Eva Whited 
Shelby Sweeney