Bradford Rhea McGuire

Bradford Rhea McGuire was born February 18, 1965, in Haskell, Texas. The son of Douglas Allen McGuire and Ann Levell Cargill Davis, Brad and his family lived in Rochester, Texas, Mannheim, Germany, Kermit, Rankin, Ballinger and Clarendon, Texas. A graduate from Clarendon High School, Brad received his Bachelor’s degree in English and Communications from Sul Ross State University.

Brad and Karen met at the KVLF Radio station in Alpine, where he taught her to be a DJ. They developed a children’s radio program that featured Brad as the voice of a desert rat, Philo, and Karen as Philo’s wife, Prissy Sue. The program consisted of a theme song,” Smile and the World Smiles with You”-, a character-building children’s story and conversations with Philo and Prissy Sue.

In addition to a stint at the Alpine Vet Clinic and the Alpine Pizza Hut [where, believe it or not, their kids actually began to get tired of pizza!], Brad was a volunteer coach at the Alpine Jr. High and one of the favorite monitors of the students in the In School Suspension class! He also served as the Photography teacher at Alpine High School, was an aide to the Special Ed Classes, and wrote the AHS Sports Column for the Alpine Avalanche. Commenting on his time in the dark room at AHS Brad said, “The previous photography teacher gave me the textbooks and the key and said ‘Good luck’. I spent the summer teaching myself how to use the chemicals and develop pictures. It actually was a lot of fun! I put photographs of school sports events on my classroom door and the students could buy any of the prints they wanted all year long. That helped pay for the purchase of more chemicals in the dark room!”

Brad worked as grounds keeper and maintenance man for Paisano Baptist Encampment for about 8 ½ years. He and Karen established the Saturday night Chapel service at Paisano for all comers, which continued for several years after the McGuires moved to town. Brad was interim pastor at First Baptist Church in Fort Davis for 14 months and then began preaching at Hillside in 2008. Some of his best memories were working with the men of the church in ministries at Hillside, attending a Green Bap Packer game at Lambeau Field.