Leadership and integrity are two of the core values that Rocky Mount Academy promotes, and there are no better words to describe the most loyal member of the RMA family: longtime Business Manager Patsy Bradley, who announced her retirement at the end of the 2024-2025 school year after 57 years of service.
Mrs. Bradley, affectionately known by former students as Ms. Patsy, has been an integral part of the school’s development and success. For more than half a century, and over the tenures of five Heads of School, she served as the business manager, handling everything from tuition to payroll and ensuring the best possible use of the Academy’s financial resources.
Her long career at Rocky Mount Academy began in a small office in downtown Rocky Mount while the first buildings were being constructed in 1968. RMA’s current Head of School, Ms. Beth Covolo, noted how unusual it was for a private school in the 1960s to hire a woman in a position traditionally held by men, but she acknowledged that “Mr. Cutler [the first headmaster] hit it out of the park with this one” when he hired Mrs. Bradley.
In the fall of 1969, RMA opened its doors to 168 students, and Ms. Patsy was there with open arms to welcome them, even serving as the girls’ PE instructor when not recording tuition payments and expenditures by hand on ledger cards.
Although her job changed over the years–with added staff, more students (RMA’s 2024-2025 enrollment was 496), and new accounting technology–the importance of her contributions and her commitment to the school never changed.
Noting her determination and loyalty, Ms. Covolo emphasized that Mrs. Bradley would “make the impossible possible if it benefitted students or teachers,” so after her family moved to Morehead City in late 2022, Mrs. Bradley worked remotely and commuted to Rocky Mount as needed so that she could continue her work at RMA.
Not only did Mrs. Bradley fulfill a crucial role at the Academy for 57 years, but she also did it with grace and empathy. Director of Admissions Mrs. Hadley Gross, an RMA graduate, noted, “Ms. Patsy always made time for people, no matter how busy she was. She made everyone feel important.”
Over the years, Rocky Mount Academy has often honored this extraordinary woman who gave so much to our school. In 2016, Mrs. Bradley’s picture was added to the newly created Wall of Fame, which displays photographs of the 26 staff members who have served the school for at least two decades. Then, to mark the Academy’s 50th year in 2018, the yearbook was dedicated to Mrs. Bradley, and Avondale Hall (the front office) was renamed Bradley Hall in a decision announced at the annual auction.
This past weekend, the school hosted not a farewell but a celebration–appropriately, in Bradley Hall–to once again recognize Mrs. Bradley. Several retired faculty and staff members attended, including former Head of School Mr. Tom Stevens (1999-2011), who traveled from Maryland. Guests were asked to sign a coffee table book featuring photographs spanning all 57 years of Mrs. Bradley’s tenure, and the school honored her with a floral cake, a video featuring students, faculty, and family paying tribute to her, and a heartfelt speech delivered by Ms. Covolo. To thank Mrs. Bradley for her countless contributions, the Academy commissioned a special piece of artwork: a picture of Bradley Hall drawn by RMA’s Middle School art teacher, Mrs. Erin Miniard.
The reception was a beautiful reminder that while Mrs. Bradley may be stepping away, “she is still the heart and soul of this institution we call our family,” as Ms. Covolo said. We know that the ways she touched RMA will continue to be felt in every hallway, every classroom, and every tradition, and for that, “we thank her from the bottom of our collective hearts.”
