Bradley Clayton Sawyer, 71, died Monday, September 5, of renal cancer at the McCarthy Care Center in Sandwich, after decades of battling for life. He was the beloved husband of Diana (Abraham) Sawyer for 48 years.
 
Brad’s survival for the last 41 years amazed the medical experts after his 1975 diagnosis of Ankylosing Spondylitis, a debilitating connective tissue disease.  He would speak every year to the second year students at Harvard Medical School and Boston Medical School and he was the subject of a documentary about the disease to educate future doctors.
 
 His unfailing good humor and courage despite great pain amazed his many friends over the decades as the disease fused his entire rib cage and spine into one bone and his frame shrank and curved.  For several years, he repeatedly fought off cancer and he was a familiar face in the radiation lab at Cape Cod Hospital. Because Brad could not turn his neck while driving, he patented the Multiflex Adjust-A-View Safety Mirror which enabled him to drive safely for many years. Since 2005, he made, marketed and sold 14,143 of the mirrors to other drivers all over the world.
 
He looked forward to every day with joy and anticipation.  Every morning he and friends would solve the problems of the world over coffee at Barnstable Harbor where he also kept his Seacraft for many years. He had a great sense of humor and loved to tell stories and make people laugh.  He was an avid hunter for deer, first by bow and arrow and then musket, until a few years before his death.
 
He loved to travel and he and his wife, Diana, enjoyed a trip to Rome, other cities in Italy and France and several riverboat cruises in Europe.  They would drive all over the United States and stopped to visit with friends and family along the way. Sawyer was born in Haverhill, MA, the son of Evelyn and Roger Sawyer.
 
 He graduated from Haverhill High School and enlisted in the U.S. Army where he was a radar specialist at a Nike missile site in Bristol, RI, (now Roger Williams College) at the height of the Cold War. After his three years of service, he attended Northern Essex Community College until he got a job in sales with National Cash Register in Hyannis.  In a suit and tie, he sold and installed registers on Cape Cod and in New Bedford for about 10 years.  After working in real estate with Kevin O’Neil and developing properties in the Hyannis area for many years, he became co-owner of Ski Bradford, a family owned ski area in Bradford, MA  where generations of families have learned to ski for 65 years.
Every year, he and his brother, Neil, sponsored many fundraisers for cancer research and other charities at the ski area.
 
In addition to his wife, Diana, Brad is survived by their son, Abraham Bradley Sawyer of Yarmouthport, a brother, Neil Sawyer, of Bradford, MA, two nephews, a niece and many friends.
 
Friends and relatives are invited to call at the Hallett Funeral Home, 273 Station Ave., South Yarmouth, MA on Friday, September 16, 2016 from 3-6 P.M.  There will be a Memorial Service on Saturday, September 17, 2016 at 2:00 P.M. in the First Congregational Church of Yarmouth, Route 6A, Yarmouthport, MA. 
 
Contributions in his memory may be made to Mary McCarthy House,  Hope Hospice, 765 Attucks Lane, Hyannis, MA 02601.
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                                                     
                                                                                   
 
                                                                                                                                                                       
 
                                 
 

Brad was my God father. I had great memories with him and Diana. I would go and spend lots time with them. He was a great man. I felt lots love and caring from them. I remember riding my bike down to their house a lot. They would take me on their boat. We would go to the sand dunes and play for day. Then go pick up the crab or lobster traps.They had two Golden retrievers that I’d play with the tennis ball with them. Brad had a cool model T truck he would take me for a ride in. I moved to California later in life. When I was in my 20’s, I drove to Cape Cod. I made sure I visited him when I was there. They used to have a room with toys I could play to. I just saw this now and want say I loved Diana and Brad and will always have them in my heart even though I’m old now.