Gamble, Sarah Merry Bradley, 1898-1984

Sarah Merry (Bradley) Gamble was born on March 9, 1898, in Brookline, Massachusetts, one of five daughters of Amy (Aldis) Bradley and Richards Merry Bradley; a son died in childhood. Many of the Aldis family resided in St. Albans, Vermont, while the Bradleys originally settled in Westminster and later moved to Brattleboro.

Gamble grew up in Boston. During her childhood the family summered at Manchester-by-the-Sea on the North Shore, in York Harbor, Maine, with her mother's family, and in later years at the Bradley Home Place in Brattleboro. She was educated at the Winsor School, and later attended Radcliffe College and Simmons School of Social Work. She served as a volunteer driver during World World I, and in 1917 helped found Green Mountain Camp, intended to provide rural Vermont girls with a healthy educational and recreational summer.

In 1924, she married Clarence James Gamble (1894-1966) of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Pasadena, California, one of four children of Mary (Huggins) Gamble and David Berry Gamble and grandson of the co-founder of Procter & Gamble. Clarence had graduated from Princeton in 1914 and from Harvard Medical School in 1920. Sarah and Clarence had five children: Sarah Louise (Sally); Richard Bradley; Walter James; Mary Julia (Judy); and Robert David. The family lived near Philadelphia while Clarence held a post in the University of Pennsylvania Department of Pharmacology. In 1937 they moved to Milton, Massachusetts; Clarence taught at Harvard Medical School and was a researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Clarence's independent income allowed him to devote himself to the controversial field of birth control, and in 1929 he helped found a Maternal Health Clinic in Cincinnati. Such "maternal health associations," which provided contraceptive services, were eventually established in forty cities in fourteen states. In 1952, Clarence and Sarah attended the Bombay International Birth Control Conference organized by Margaret Sanger. The Gambles made four around-the-world trips, working with doctors and social workers to set up family planning clinics in Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Burma, Singapore, East and West Pakistan, India, Ceylon, the United Arab Republic, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Greece, Italy, Nigeria, France, Sweden, and England. They also sent field workers overseas to undertake birth control work in developing countries. After Clarence's death, Sarh made a solo world tour.

The Pathfinder Fund was incorporated in 1957. As described in the 1978 annual report, it is a non-political, non-profit organization that "promotes and supports population and family planning activities in less developed countries." The organization has offices in Boston and in several foreign cities, and has conducted projects in more than eighty countries. The Gambles' five children (and some of their spouses) have been active in the organization. For more information about the Gambles' work in birth control, see Every Child a Wanted Child, by Doone and Greer Williams (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1978).

Gamble and her family were also active in a number of community service organizations, including the Northfield League, Inc. (originally the Northfield Religious Conference for Girls), St. Michael's Sunday School, the Experiment in International Living, the Boston Center for Adult Education, and the Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross; Gamble served on the boards of a number of these organizations. The Gamble family also housed British foster children during World War II and was active in the civil rights movement. She was a prolific poet and wrote many children's stories with religious messages.