Fr. Bernard (“Bernie”) was born December 21, 1942, in Allamakee County Iowa, the second son of Edward and Margaret (Brady) Grady. He was named after Bernard Brady, his maternal grandfather. Bernard's mother's eyes would roll when she heard him referred to as “Bernie”, but outside of the family, “Bernie” was his name. Bernie attended the Waterville consolidated school until he started 3rd grade at Linton No. 1, a one-room country school at Egan, Iowa. After graduating from 8th grade he attended Waukon High School, graduating in 1960. He enrolled in Loras College, graduated in 1964, and then entered Mount St. Bernard's Seminary in Dubuque. He was ordained a priest June 1, 1968 at the Cathedral of St. Raphael in Dubuque. During his career, Fr. Bernie also attended short term graduate programs in ministry, including the language schools he attended to prepare for his work in Bolivia and Peru.

Fr. Bernie often shared stories of his childhood at the Grady farm in Linton and Paint Creek Townships of Allamakee County. Grady farmland almost completely surrounded a country church, St. Pius V Catholic of Cherry Mound. The farm also bordered woodland that eventually became the Yellow River Forest Preserve.

Just as his family's farm surrounded the Cherry Mound church, Fr. Bernie grew up surrounded by the Church. The life of the parish was integral to his life. As a neighbor and member of the parish, sometimes he was asked to mow the cemetery and sometimes he was asked to dig graves. Once he and his brother Louis Mark worked with pastor Msgr. Leander Reicks to build the stone altar that sits in the cemetery to mark the site of the original Cherry Mound church. But Bernie's main contribution to parish life was as an altar boy. He lived so close to the church that he could be called upon at a moment's notice to serve Mass for funerals, in addition to regular duties of serving at Sunday Masses, at weddings, and at special services during Lent, Holy Days, and First Fridays. As an altar “boy” (there were no altar “girls” in that era) Bernie learned the Latin responses of the pre-Vatican II Latin Mass. Later, as a priest, Fr. Bernie was grateful that St. John XXIII and the Vatican Council “opened the windows” of the Church, by changing the language of worship away from Latin to languages the people could understand. The Council also opened the Mass to the people by rearranging the altar so Mass would be celebrated by a priest who faced the people, and by inviting both boys and girls to become altar servers. Father Bernie was an advocate of making the Catholic faith more accessible to the people, and he was an advocate of ecumenism among people of all faiths. He was a “Vatican II” priest who encouraged everyone–priests, religious, and the laity–to be active and supportive members of the same community–the community of Christian faith.

On February 14, 1954 Bernie served Sunday Mass with Joey Slattery, his friend and former classmate from Waterville. After Mass Joey's family started a planned trip to Dubuque. As the Slattery family drove south along the Mississippi River between Effigy Mounds and Marquette, a stone fell off the cliff which overshadows the road, striking the car and killing Joey. Father Bernie has said that Joey's death was one of the life experiences which led him to explore a vocation to the priesthood.

In 1968 St. Pius Cherry Mound did not have an altar facing the people, so before he was ordained, he decided to build one for the church. Bernie and his father harvested a cherry tree from the Grady woods, and after the lumber was sawed and dried, Bernie hauled the lumber to the woodworking shop at Mount St. Bernard seminary, where he used the lumber to build an altar which faced the people. This altar was installed and used for Bernie's First Mass at St. Pius. Father Bernie's First Mass was the first time the people of St. Pius V Cherry Mound worshiped at a Mass where the priest faced the people. That altar–the Cherry Mound “Vatican II altar” made by Father Bernie from cherry wood grown on his parents' farm–is still in use at St. Pius V Cherry Mound.

After ordination, Fr. Bernie was given a short summer assignment at St. Edward in Waterloo, which was followed by his first real assignment at St. Joseph, Marion. After Marion he was assigned to Immaculate Conception in Charles City, and then he joined the archdiocesan mission church of San Rafael in Cochabamba Bolivia, where he served from 1977 to 1986 When he returned to Iowa he was assigned to Blessed Sacrament in Waterloo. Fr. Bernie wanted to return to mission work, so he sought permission for temporary leave from the archdiocese and in 1994 he became an associate member of the Columban Missionary Fathers. The Columbans assigned him to be the pastor of Jesus Resucitado parish in Ermitano, Peru their mission parish on the outskirts of Lima, Peru. In 1995, while back in Iowa to visit family, Fr. Bernie donated a kidney to his brother-in-law John Mans. After recovering from that surgery, Fr. Bernie returned to Lima until he came home to Iowa permanently in 1998, when he was assigned to St. Mary Parish in Marshalltown. In 2005 Fr. Bernie received his final assignment to St. Patrick in Hampton and St. Mary in Ackley. While working in Iowa Fr. Bernard was supportive of Marriage Encounter, Retrouvaille, Stewardship, Hispanic Ministry, and other archdiocesan initiatives.

In 2012 he retired to Marshalltown, where he was a member of St. Francis parish (formed by combining St. Henry, St. Mary, and Immaculate Conception of Haverhill). Fr. Bernie remained active in priestly ministry, helping out when needed by churches in central Iowa and at the Iowa Veterans Home in Marshalltown, and volunteering with Meals on Wheels and at the Emergency Food Box. He lived alone in his own home in Marshalltown until the last week of his life.

Father Bernie is survived by his siblings Louis Mark (Mary Ann ) of Leominster, MA, Virginia (“Ginny”) Zimmerman (Mike) of Iowa City, IA, Allan (Araceli) of South St. Paul MN, Glen (Cheryl ) of Neillsville, WI, Ellen Grady-Mans of Riceville, IA, Peter (Jeannine ) of Marshalltown IA, and Marian of Regina, SK, and 17 nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles, his infant sister Margaret, his brother-in-law John Mans, several cousins, many friends and all of the members of the 1968 ordination class.

Visitation will occur at 5:00 until 7:00 P.M. on Sunday, September 7 at the St. Henry church, Marshalltown. There will be a 7:00 p.m. vigil service. A funeral Mass will be celebrated on Monday, September 8 at 10:30 A.M. also at the church. The services will be recorded and will be available for viewing at the Mitchell Family Funeral Home website, www.mitchellfh.com after 3:00 on September 8.

Father Bernie's ashes will be placed in a wooden urn he built which will be buried on Sunday, September 21 in the St. Pius V, Cherry Mound cemetery after the 10:30 Sunday Mass. Those attending the burial will also be able to attend the St. Pius Fall Festival on the same day. The family asks that memorials be made in the name of Cherry Mound Cemetery Fund for future care of the cemetery and the souls of the faithful departed buried there.