Alfred Bader

Alfred Bader was born on April 28, 1924, in Vienna, Austria. His father, Alfred Bader, was of Czech Jewish descent. His grandfather, Moriz Bader, had been a civil engineer, who worked on the Suez Canal and was appointed Knight of the Order of Franz Joseph by Emperor Franz Joseph for his service as Austrian consul at Ismaïlia. His older sister, Marion, remained with Countess Serényi and was raised as a Catholic. His adoptive mother remained in Austria, and died in 1942 in Theresienstadt. While in England, Bader attended the East Hove Senior School for Boys, and Brighton Technical College. In 1940 he was sent to a Canadian internment camp for European refugees (which Bader described as spartan but a good influence on his academic and social education). While in the camp, Bader passed his junior and senior matriculation, taking exams from McGill University. A Montreal sponsor, Martin Wolff, welcomed him into a Canadian Jewish family in late 1941 and encouraged him to study further. ==Education==

After being rejected by McGill, which had a Jewish "quota" and by the University of Toronto, where the chemistry department was doing sensitive war work, Bader went on to study at Harvard University, with the support of the Abbott fellowship. At Harvard, he studied with famed organic chemist Louis Fieser, working on the rearrangement of quinones and the development of intermediates in the Hooker oxidation process. • Engineering Chemistry BS, Queen's University (1945) • History BA, Queen's University (1946) • Chemistry MSc, Queen's University (1947) • Chemistry MA, Harvard University (1949) • Chemistry PhD, Harvard University (1950) ==Business==

While working for the Murphy Paint Company in Montreal, Bader was offered financial support to do graduate work, on the condition that he return to work at the company. By the time he finished his Ph.D. at Harvard, Murphy Paint had been acquired by Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co. In January 1950, Bader began work as a research chemist at Pittsburgh Plate Glass. His appointment to the Milwaukee, Wisconsin research facilities broke an unwritten rule against the hiring of Jews and African Americans. While at PPG Bader did significant work in noncatalytic transesterification and in the development of monomers, including systematic studies of alkenylphenols, unsaturated phenols, and phenolic resins. This work led to a number of patents. The patent for Bader's method of creating diphenolic acid was later sold by PPG to Johnson Wax for $1M. Bader remained with PPG until 1954, when the company planned a move to Pittsburgh. As the catalog grew, so did the company. In 1962 in a 50:50 venture between Aldrich Chemicals and Metal Hydrides Inc., Alfred Bader founded Alfa Inorganics, intending to complement Aldrich's organic chemicals with inorganic research chemicals. This joint venture was terminated in 1967. Other joint ventures have been formed as well. ==Art collector==

Bader stated, "I am an inveterate collector. It may be a sickness, and it began with stamps at eight, drawings at 10, paintings at 20, and rare chemicals at 30." A lifelong collector, Bader has devoted himself to the study of art history and collection of many fine paintings. In 1961, he and Marvin Klitsner established Alfred Bader Fine Arts gallery in Milwaukee. Artworks from his collection were also featured on the Aldrich Handbook, beginning with the Quill Cutter by Paulus de Lesire in the 1967–68 edition of the catalog. In 1995 Bader published his autobiography, Adventures of a Chemist Collector, which details his experiences from Nazi-era refugee, to chemist magnate, to fine arts connoisseur. In 2008 he published his second autobiography, Chemistry & Art - Further Adventures of a Chemist Collector. Alfred Bader died at home in Milwaukee on December 23, 2018. ==Philanthropist==

, 2009 Bader has given various charitable donations to Queen's University, Canada, both financial and in-kind. He purchased the 15th century Herstmonceux Castle in East Sussex, England, and donated it to Queen's University, which opened Bader College there in 1994. The residence at the college at Herstmonceux Castle is named "Bader Hall" in recognition. Bader and his second wife, Isabel, have also established a number of fellowships, including the Alfred Bader Graduate Fellowship, the Alfred Bader Graduate Fellowship in Art, The Alfred Bader Graduate Fellowship in the Humanities, and the Alfred and Isabel Bader Postdoctoral Fellowship in Jewish History. Queen's also hosts three Bader Chairs: in Organic Chemistry, in Southern Baroque Art, and in Northern Baroque Art. In honour of his numerous contributions, in 2004 Queen's renamed a campus road from "Queen's Crescent" to "Bader Lane". The Baders are long-time supporters of the Agnes Etherington Art Centre at Queen's in Kingston, Ontario. Upon the invitation of curator Frances Smith in 1967, Bader first donated a painting to Queen's, a Salvator Mundi. In 2014, Bader and his second wife, Isabel, donated 68 paintings from their personal collection of Dutch and Flemish Baroque art to the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, bringing the number of paintings they have donated to the centre to over 200. Highlights of the collection include three paintings by Rembrandt van Rijn, Head of an Old Man in a Cap, Head of a Man in a Turban, and paintings by Willem Drost, Jan Lievens, Aert de Gelder, and Jacobus Leveck. The collection has been the basis of a number of exhibitions and publications. The Baders also contributed a "transformational gift" At Victoria University, Toronto, alma mater of Isabel Bader, the Baders funded construction of a performing arts theatre, the Isabel Bader Theatre. Since 2001, the Baders supported the Malta Conferences Foundation which uses science as a bridge to peace in the Middle East. Since 1986, the Baders have funded the giving of the Alfred Bader Award in Bioinorganic or Bioorganic Chemistry by the American Chemical Society, "to recognize outstanding contributions to bioorganic or bioinorganic chemistry". Since 1989, the Baders have funded the Bader Award from the Royal Society of Chemistry given "to recognise eminence in organic chemistry". Since 2013, the Alfred Bader Award has been given by the Canadian Society for Chemistry to a scientist working in Canada for "excellence in research in organic chemistry". As of 2011, the Baders had donated $1.6 million towards the construction of the proposed Kenwood Interdisciplinary Research Complex (KIRC) at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UWM). ==Awards and honours==

Awards and honours received by Alfred Bader include but are not limited to the following: Honorary degrees • DSc from University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (1980) • DSc from Northwestern University (1990) • DSc from University of Edinburgh (1998) • DSc from Glasgow University (1999) • DSc from Masaryk University (2000) Memberships • Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters - Fellow (1986) • Royal Society of Chemistry - Honorary Fellow (1990) • Chemical Institute of Canada - Honorary Fellow (1996) • Austrian Chemical Society - Honorary Membership (2002) • Royal Society of Arts in London, England - Fellow Medals and awards • American Chemical Society, Milwaukee Section - Award (1971) • Winthrop-Sears Medal (1980) • Czech Academy of Sciences - J.E. Purkyne Medal (1994) • American Chemical Society - Charles Lathrop Parsons Award (1995) • University of Vienna - Honorary Citizen (1995) • Boron USA Award (1997) • American Institute of Chemists Gold Medal (1997) • Pittcon Heritage Award (2009) • Commander of the Order of the British Empire ==Personal==

Bader's marriages are described in his autobiographical books. His romance in England with Isabel Overton (1926–2022), the daughter of a deeply religious Protestant family in Northern Ontario and a graduate of Victoria University in Toronto, began with a shipboard meeting in 1949 and continued in a rapid courtship and some 400 love letters. Isabel broke off the relationship because of religious concerns and settled in Bexhill-on-Sea in Sussex, England but did not become romantically involved with anyone else. Her love letters to Alfred Bader have been published as A Canadian in Love, 2000. Alfred went on to meet and marry his first wife Helen Ann "Danny" Daniels, in the United States. Similar in many ways to Isabel, including a Protestant religious upbringing, Danny converted to Judaism before Bader proposed to her. Married in July 1952, they had two sons, David (born 1958) and Daniel (born 1961). Danny worked at Aldrich Chemicals, and owned shares in the company. Nearly three decades later Alfred re-connected with Isabel, which led to the breakdown of his marriage with Danny; Danny requested a divorce in 1981 and died six years later. Alfred subsequently married Isabel and the two remained happily married until his death. ==Resources==

• Adventures of a Chemist Collector, by Alfred Bader. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1995 • Further Adventures of a Chemist Collector, by Alfred Bader. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2008 • A Canadian in love, letters from Isabel Overton to Alfred Bader, edited and with an introduction by Roseann Runte. Toronto : Victoria University, 2000. • • • The Bader Family papers, Victoria University Library, Toronto, Ontario • The Aldrich Chemical Company collection, 1945-2001 (bulk 1951-1980), Science History Institute, Philadelphia, PA ==References==