By Mary Hightower
U of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture

LITTLE ROCK — Though silent, Don Bragg’s office speaks volumes. The awards on the walls attest to his professional excellence as a forester and researcher, but it’s the crayon drawings that show where his heart was.

“When you go in his office, the walls are full of awards,” said Mike Blazier, dean of the College of Forestry, Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Arkansas at Monticello. “When you walk up to his office door, there are crayon drawings from his children. Right over his desk there’s a big yellow construction paper posting that says ‘I love you daddy,’ which was from his son when he was 4.

“For everything he accomplished, it was his children that were most dear,” Blazier said.

Hope and Don Bragg at the Arkansas Agricultural Hall of Fame lunch in Little Rock. (U of A System Division of Agriculture file photo by Angie Freel)

Don, his wife, Hope, and their children Kenny, 22, and Elizabeth, 19, of Monticello, Arkansas, are being remembered by their friends and colleagues with great affection and respect. The family was killed in a house explosion on Dec. 30 in Michigan, a blast that also injured their son Stephen, 16, and Hope’s father, Richard Pruden. Both remained hospitalized on Wednesday. Investigators are calling the event a “fuel-air explosion.”

GoFundMe fundraisers have been set up for Stephen Bragg, 16, https://gofund.me/d32eff21, and Richard Pruden, https://www.gofundme.com/f/richard-pruden-medical-expenses.

Don was a project leader for the U.S. Forest Service with an office at the University of Arkansas at Monticello. Hope was a STEM instructor for the Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service’s 4-H program. The two imbued their children with a love of science, technology and history, and the family shared those interests together on hikes, archaeological digs and 4-H youth development activities.

Blazier knew Don Bragg for more than two decades. In forestry, their careers often crossed. He remembered Don as being inquisitive and insightful, an excellent scientist and a bit of a sci-fi movie nerd.

Hope Bragg also loved learning. She had begun to pursue a Ph.D., and in December had been awarded a scholarship to help accomplish that goal. Her smile and enthusiasm for archeology, astronomy and other realms of science were infectious, friends said.

“Hope Bragg was incredibly passionate about science, about technology, and she loved to get youth excited about that,” said Debbie Nistler, assistant vice president for 4-H and youth for the Cooperative Extension Service. “She lit up when she had the opportunity to get youth excited about science.”

“Don was her perfect partner,” Blazier said.

Nistler said Hope’s 4-H colleagues will be working in her memory on the projects she held dear.

“The best way for us to feel like we're doing something in her name is to make sure that SeaPerch and Tech Changemakers, her archeology program and a special program for the eclipse on April 8 carry on her legacy in science education,” Nistler said. “We are also planning that scholarship for the Bragg family since education was a focus for all of them.”

Nistler said plans are in the works for a special memorial at the C.A. Vines Arkansas 4-H Center in Ferndale. Each year, thousands of Arkansas youth take to the center’s rolling wooded acres to learn about life skills while catching a fish or escaping the summer heat in the pool.

The center will be home to four more trees, each be planted in memory of Hope, Don, Elizabeth and Kenny Bragg, all of whom spent time at the center, Nistler said.

The Cooperative Extension Service is part of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on X and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on X at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on X at @AgInArk.