Jim and his wife Jayne are Stillwater residents. Together they have 4 children, 3 sons and one daughter. One son is working in the family business, another son served in Iraq under the Minnesota National Guard Red Bull Division as a Captain, another son has a property maintenance business, and their daughter is living in New York City working in marketing, writing, and advertising.

Jim graduated from the University of Minnesota Mortuary Science Program in 1964. Jim is first generation in funeral service and founded the family business in 1972. Jayne has a medical service background, graduating from the Minnesota School of Business. Jayne and Jim are both active in the family business.

Jim has been active in local and regional foundations and organizations serving his industry and those of community support. Recently he completed his services as a founding board member of the Saint Croix Valley Foundation and is the Past President of the Indianhead Council of Boy Scouts. He is a Past Board member of Gillette Children’s Specialty Hospital and Past Chairman of the Foundation and Board, and is a past Board member of Lakeview Hospital System and Chairman of the System's Foundation, currently serving on Region’s Hospital Foundation Board, also, Past Board Member of F. R. Bigelow Fund and recently retired from Board as Treasurer, Current Board member of Northern Star Council of Boy Scouts, Past Board member of Saint Paul Area Council of Churches, Member of the Anti-Racism Initiative “Facing Race, We are all in it together” of the Saint Paul Foundation, chair of the North End Community Foundation and Chair of the Saint Paul Riverfront Corporation. Past District Governor for Rotary District 5960, Past President of the Minnesota Funeral Directors Association, and Past Chair of the Vision Foundation for the Minnesota Medical Foundation. Currently, Jim serves as Chairman of the Saint Paul Riverfront Corporation. Jim has had extensive involvement working with the Hmong Community dating back to serving the first Hmong person dying in Minnesota. He is, and has been, involved in numerous other community activities and finds volunteering is his personal growth pastime and hobby, along with being an avid reader.

Jayne has been actively involved as a Board Member of the Croixdale Senior Center of Presbyterian Homes, Co Chair of the Saint Croix Valley Heart Association, Vice President and Secretary for the family business, and strong supporter of the Bradshaw family business, and the Community.

Jim and Jayne Bradshaw share a passion for helping people through difficult times as they help families and friends celebrate the life of someone they have lost. They are also strong supporters of people working to have high quality of life in their senior years and in their final days.

While at Pepperdine University pursuing his undergraduate degree in Biology back in the 1990s, Jason Bradshaw dreamed of the innovative breakthroughs he’d make in the laboratory. But destiny called—as it often does. As a result, Jason’s past few years have been, instead, part of a unique father-son team that has focused itself on leading-edge “hospitality” practices, not laboratory breakthroughs. Recognized even by Time Magazine (2004) for their innovative contributions to the changing world of funerals, the Bradshaws were described as part of the funeral makeover of national leaders. 

“So many of the families who came to us wanted to celebrate the life of the person who had died, we realized we had to become very good at event planning,” says Jason today. When he was interviewed, he had just returned from a customer-service seminar at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. “We look at ourselves as being totally customer focused. We respond to what each family wants in order to make their celebration meaningful. Whatever it takes.” 

Jason serves as the Bradshaw Group’s President/CEO and chief operating officer, meaning, as he describes it, that he works with the numbers, the financing and the details of Bradshaw’s initiatives. Since 2010, for example, Jason has been responsible for the company’s bio cremation or “natural” cremation project. “We looked at bio cremation because families increasingly began asking for more environmentally suitable ways to dispose of the body of a person who has died,” says Jason. “Essentially, bio cremation takes the natural process and accelerates it to two or three hours,” he explains.

The Bradshaw Group is the only funeral organization in the region, which has such an environmental process in place. Jason, who is active in a number of community organizations including the Rotary Club of Saint Paul, lives in Somerset, Wisconsin with his wife, Brea, their two daughters and a son. 

In the 30 years that Bradshaw’s Team Leader David Haroldson has served families as a funeral director, there has been an extraordinary change in his industry, he says. When he first graduated from the

At the University of Minnesota, for example, funerals were standardized. Within the limits of a culture or religion, families had little choice about how a funeral service was conducted.

“When I first entered the business, technical skills were the number one competency for a good funeral director,” he says, “Today, however, you’ve got to be a great listener. In fact, you must start with the premise that every funeral service will be as unique as the person who has died so you must care enough to pay close attention.”

Another critical skill that funeral directors should develop, David, says, especially funeral directors for the

Bradshaw Group is creativity, and that means frequently doing things in a funeral home that have never been tried before. “Families see a funeral or memorial service in perspective of their own grieving process,” he explains, noting that they want to help shape those moments with friends and family so they will be the most meaningful to them.

“At Bradshaw, we don’t let much of anything stand in our way. We want every celebration to be just right,” David explains. One ceremony explains what he means: set at the Stillwater/East Metro Center (Learn more), which is light-filled with many giant windows, the chapel was transformed into a campground including tents, evergreen trees, a canoe, an artificial brook with a bridge and fake campfires. The guests were seated on lawn chairs and camp stools. “The man being celebrated had been an avid outdoors person,” he recalls. “The family recreated a scene for his memorial service that he would have loved in his life.”

David’s willingness to find ways to make things happen—on behalf of the family’s wishes—made such a moving service possible. “We turned the entire Center over to that family’s celebration that day. Most funeral home operations wouldn’t be willing to do that.”

Being able to “listen effectively” and having a creative streak are clearly part of David’s home life too. A musician by background and talent (trombone and piano) with a keen sense of being able to play by ear, he also enjoys tinkering with his motorcycles and planning road trips. He and his wife (who also has her motorcycle license) have a teenage son and two adult daughters.

Michael Sorrell, Funeral Director, joined Bradshaw in 2009. Full Notice to come.

I grew up on the Eastside of Saint Paul and graduated from the University of Minnesota. Growing up my parents thought it was important for their children to have an understanding of what takes place after someone dies. They encouraged us to go with them to attend visitations and funerals for family members, neighbors and friends. I also was acquainted with a local funeral director and by observing what he did and asking questions about his profession, I felt this was a career that I wanted to do, to provide comfort to people in their time of need. What I find most meaningful as a director is working with families to provide options for services that will enable them to celebrate their loved one’s life. I feel working at Bradshaw, I am able to help and assist people to carry out their wishes.

Anne first honed her skills for hospitality during the 18 years she and her husband owned and operated a restaurant in the mountains of Montana. Since graduating from the University of Minnesota's Mortuary Science program in 2015, she has been thankful to be part of the Bradshaw team. She especially is proud of the way she and her colleagues work hard to provide the same high level of dignity and care for each and every family, across a wide range of cultural backgrounds and economic circumstances.

Anne spends her time outside of work with her husband (now a Lutheran pastor), their adult children and their rescue dog, Doug. She has recently retired from the board of directors for the Minnesota Boychoir, and currently sits on the advisory board of the University of Minnesota's Program of Mortuary Science. Anne sings with the Chrismon Chorale, enjoys trying new restaurants and craft breweries and traveling, and is always grateful for more time spent with friends.

Mikaela grew up in Little Canada, MN and graduated from the University of Minnesota's Program of Mortuary Science in May of 2016.

After joining the team at Bradshaw in January of 2019, she is honored to be serving her hometown community. She is happy to be surrounded by such a loving and caring group of professionals who hold the same passion for serving families in one of the most difficult times in their lives.

Away from Bradshaw, she enjoys figure skating, practicing yoga, attending concerts, traveling, and spending time with her friends, family, and husband, Russell.