Alfred Bader CBE is a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 chemist, businessman and collector of fine art

Fine art

Fine art or the fine arts encompass art forms developed primarily for aesthetics and/or concept rather than practical application. Art is often a synonym for fine art, as employed in the term "art gallery"....

.

Early years

Bader's father's family was of Czech Jewish descent; his mother was a Catholic Hungarian aristocrat. He fled from Austria (via the Kindertransport

Kindertransport

Kindertransport is the name given to the rescue mission that took place nine months prior to the outbreak of the Second World War. The United Kingdom took in nearly 10,000 predominantly Jewish children from Nazi Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and the Free City of Danzig...

) to England in 1938 (at age 14) to escape Nazi

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 persecution. He studied engineering chemistry at Queen's University

Queen's University

Queen's University, , is a public research university located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. Founded on 16 October 1841, the university pre-dates the founding of Canada by 26 years. Queen's holds more more than of land throughout Ontario as well as Herstmonceux Castle in East Sussex, England...

, in Kingston, Ontario, then continued his education at Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

.

Education

• 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

Bader was employed as a research chemist by Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co.

PPG Industries

PPG Industries is a global supplier of paints, coatings, optical products, specialty materials, chemicals, glass and fiber glass. With headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, PPG operates in more than 60 countries around the globe. Sales in 2010 were $13.4 billion...

 in 1950, remaining with PPG until 1954. While pursuing this career, he sensed the need for a small reliable company dedicated to providing quality research chemicals (at that time Kodak was their only supplier, and that large company seemed to show insufficient consideration for small and independent researchers), and as a result he co-founded the Aldrich Chemical Company in 1951, with the title of Chief Chemist (the company operated out of a garage). By 1954 he was able to buy out his partner to become sole proprieter and company president, at which time he took his leave from PPG. In 1975 the Aldrich Chemical Company merged with the Sigma Chemical Corporation to become the Sigma-Aldrich Corporation, the 80th largest chemical company in the United States. Bader was president (later chairman) of the combined company.

In an unexpected corporation upheaval Bader was ousted from the company in 1991. He decided it gave him more time to pursue his artistic desires and his philanthropy. A few years later, however, Bader was invited to return as chemist collector of paintings for covers of the company journal, Aldrichimica Acta (which Bader had founded).

Art connoisseur and philanthropist

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." He collected stamps as a youth when his finances permitted. He purchased his first oil painting in the Canadian internment camp: his portrait, painted by a fellow inmate, for a fee of one Canadian dollar.

While involved with Aldrich Chemical, Bader contributed numerous articles on art subjects to the company's journal, and printed full-color copies of works from Dutch masters.

A lifelong collector, Bader has devoted himself to the study of art history and collection of many fine paintings.

Bader has given various charitable donations to Queen's, both financial and in-kind. He is the donor of the 15th century Herstmonceux Castle

Herstmonceux Castle

Herstmonceux Castle is a brick-built Tudor castle near Herstmonceux, East Sussex, United Kingdom. From 1957 to 1988 its grounds were the home of the Royal Greenwich Observatory...

, as well as Old Masters artworks such as two Rembrandt paintings. In honour of his numerous contributions, in 2004 Queen's renamed a campus road from "Queen's Crescent" to "Bader Lane". Other Queen's namesakes include "Bader Hall", the residence at the International Study Centre at Herstmonceux Castle, the Alfred Bader Fellowship, and the Bader Chairs in Southern Baroque

Baroque

The Baroque is a period and the style that used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture, painting, literature, dance, and music...

Art, and in Northern Baroque Art. For Victoria University (Toronto) he funded construction of a performing arts theatre, named in honour of his wife. He is presently establishing a similar performing arts theatre site at Queen's University, which will also be named in honour of his wife.

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.

Publications

• Thèse, métaphore, chimère: Symposium francophone pluridisciplinaire sur la dynamique esthétique dans l'art, la folie et la science (co-author with Gérard Salem), P. Lang 1986, ISBN 326103548X
• Adventures of a Chemist Collector, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1995 ISBN 0-297-83461-4
• Further Adventures of a Chemist Collector, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2008 ISBN 978-0-297-85512-5

Honorary degrees and honours

• DSc from University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (1980)
• DSc from Purdue University (1984)
• DSc from University of Wisconsin–Madison (1984)
• LLD from Queen's University
• DUniv from University of Sussex (1989)
• DSc from Northwestern University (1990)
• DSc from University of Edinburgh (1998)
• DSc from Glasgow University (1999)
• DSc from Masaryk University (2000)

• American Chemical Society, Milwaukee Section - Award (1971)
• Royal Society of Chemistry - Honorary Fellow (1990)
• Royal Society of Arts - Fellow
• Milwaukee Art Museum - Guest Curator (1976, 1989)
• Winthrop-Sears Medal (1980)
• Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters - Fellow
• Czech Academy of Sciences - J.E. Purkyne Medal (1994)
• American Chemical Society - Charles Lathrop Parsons Award (1995)
• University of Vienna - Honorary Citizen (1995)
• Chemical Institute of Canada - Honorary Fellow (1996)
• Boron USA Award (1997)
• American Institute of Chemists - Gold Medal (1997)
• American Chemical Society - "One of the top 75 Distinguished Contributors to the Chemical Enterprise in the Last 75 Years" (1998)

Personal

His romance is detailed in his second autobiographical book; it involved a shipboard meeting and courtship, some 400 love letters, a twenty-five year separation, and finally a happy and fruitful marriage. He has two sons, David and Daniel, who now serve as half-owners of the Alfred Bader Fine Arts (descendants of Bader's onetime partner in that gallery, Marvin Klitsner, now own the other half).