Dr. Dick
Dick and Millie have been married for 55 years and have seven children, including two adopted, Kenyan children, one with hydrocephalus. They have been semi-retired since 2011 but return to North Africa 4-5 times each year to assist in the work with disabled children and teach national doctors.
After receiving his undergraduate degree in Physics from UCLA in 1962 and his Doctor of Medicine from Johns Hopkins University in 1967, Dr. Richard Bransford went on to become an acclaimed surgeon with a heart for healing and helping people around the world.
His work includes serving as a surgeon, medical director, and Chief of Surgery in a variety of nations in Africa. In 1998 he co-founded the Bethany Crippled Children's Centre in Kijabe, Kenya and in 2001 he co-founded Bethany Relief and Rehabilitation International. He has served as a consultant at hospitals in Kenya, the southern Sudan, and north Africa and directed programs in pediatric rehabilitation and general surgery. He has also spent 5 months in focused study of tropical medicine.
In 2009 he was awarded both the Comninellis Award for Compassionate Service to Humanity from the Inmed Conference and the IF Award from the International Federation of Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus. He has also received the American Medical Association's "Dr. Nathan Davis International Award in Medicine" and the American College of Surgeons Surgical Humanitarianism Award. Dr. Bransford is a sought-after speaker who has presented in Kenya as well as throughout the United States.
Dick continues to look for a pathway for teaching 8-10 surgical procedures that would likely meet 80% of the surgical needs of disabled children. This would hopefully be accomplished in a 9-12 month period of time and would be directed toward medical workers for the developing world.
