A Welcoming Gate

A pathway can be many things—a connection between two spaces or two communities, or an invitation to explore.

The one celebrated by Santa Clarans on a sunny mid-April morning near Lafayette Street, running along Franklin Street into the heart of the Mission campus, is both.

Fittingly, the archways that mark the sidewalk on either side of the street are now named for trustee, donor, Locatelli Award honoree, and all-around Bronco Peggy Bradshaw ’72. Bradshaw and her husband Richard Bradshaw donated the funds that helped create the pedestrian mall Franklin Street turns into. Over the years as the couple built careers, they developed special friendships with many of the Jesuits whose home the path passes on campus.

“I am blessed to have had three close friends who served as president of Santa Clara. Each has enriched my life,” Peggy Bradshaw says. “I am grateful to each of them.”

One of those friends, SCU President Michael Engh, S.J., blessed the gates on Monday, April 22, following a parade of classic cars that ferried the Bradshaws from the Mission to the gates. As the finned Cadillacs, muscle cars, and a single teal Studebaker stopped revving and the Santa Clara pep band ceased playing, bird chirps and soft traffic sounds from Lafayette reclaimed the soundscape.

“This was the main drag for the city of Santa Clara,” says Engh, always the historian. “And it will be an ongoing entry to the University. This gate unifies the historic downtown and the University.”

He asked for the gate—and the vision and commitment to the University it, and Bradshaw herself, represents—to be blessed. Then with a young granddaughter in tow, the Bradshaws and Engh sprinkled holy water on the gates that will invite generations of explorers to campus and wish them well on their way back out into the world.