William S., or Bill, Bradshaw was born in 1937 to William W. and Lucia Seely Bradshaw. He studied biology at Harvard University and received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Illinois. He has done research in the microbiology field as well as regarding analytical thinking in students. He met his wife Marjorie while they were both serving as Latter-day Saint missionaries in Hong Kong. He later served as a mission president in the Hong Kong Mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1971 to 1947. He taught microbiology at Brigham Young University, retiring in 2008. He and his wife are former chairs of LDS Family Fellowship. They have five children.

Marge (Marjorie) Bradshaw (born 1935) is a graduate of the University of Wyoming and is a retired elementary school teacher. She met her husband William Bradshaw while they were both serving as missionaries in Hong Kong. They later returned when he was called as a mission president of the Hong Kong Mission from 1971 to 1974. They served as chairs of the LDS Family Fellowship. Together they have five children.