Most of the progressive and prominent business men of today are those who have worked their way upward from the ranks, climbing step by step. The majority of the world's leaders have not been college men but have gained their knowledge in the school of experience. It is under the pressure of adversity and the stimulus of opportunity that the strongest and best in men is brought out and developed, an illustration of this fact being found in the life record of Kent LeGrand Bradley, the president and general manager of the Progressive Tool Equipment Company, Incorporated, of New Haven. He is yet a young man but in his native city has made for himself a most creditable position.
     Mr. Bradley was born September 4, 1890, a son of Henry LeGrand and Bessie Lee (Kent) Bradley, who were also natives of this city, while their ancestors for several generations have been Connecticut born. With various prominent New England families they are connected. The father was a manufacturer of hardware specialties for many years, a business which the family has followed from generation to generation. Henry L. Bradley passed away in New Haven in 1912, at the age of forty-eight years, and is still survived by his widow. They became the parents of four children: Kent L.; Franklin Curtiss; Marion Louise; and Mrs. Katherine Chirgwin, of New Haven.
     A course in Boardman's Manual Training School supplemented the public school training of Kent LeGrand Bradley, who attended the Westville grammar school. After a three years' course in mannual training he went to Newfoundland, whore he was employed in various machine shops. He afterward removed to Calgary. Canada, where he worked as a machinist, and after an absence of two years, in which he gained very broad and valuable experience, he returned to the United States, working his way from coast to coast in the machine shops in the various states through which he passed. Ho acquired valuable knowledge not only of his trade but of men and business methods—a knowledge which has served him well in his present relation. He arrived in New Haven on the 1st of December, 1915, and established his present business on a small scale. Within a very short time this has grown to large proportions and in 1916 his sales amounted to about one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. The business was incorporated on the 29th of July of that year, with Mr. Bradley as president and general manager; Robert A. Chirgwin as secretary and treasurer; and Henry B. Thompson, consulting engineer. Their business has shown more wonderful development than that of any of the newer concerns in this line in New Haven.
     On the 4th of April, 1912, Mr. Bradley was married to Miss Martha W. Bauman, of Meriden, Connecticut, a daughter of John H. Bauman, and they now have a daughter, Marion Kentwod, born in New Britain, Connecticut, May 4, 1913. They lost one son, Kent L., Jr., who died at the age of six months.
     In politics Mr. Bradley follows an independent course. He has membership in the Masonic fraternity and in Center church, associations which indicate the principles which govern his conduct. He is social and genial in disposition and ranks with the coming business men of his city and state, standing very high in public regard.