Adventures of a Chemist Collector

Born in Vienna, Alfred Bader fled to England at the age of fourteen, ten months before the outbreak of World War II. Although a Jewish refugee from the Nazis, he was interned in 1940, along with other 'enemy aliens', and sent to a Canadian prisoner-of-war camp. Today, Bader is one of the most respected men in his field. In this heartwarming book, he tells the fascinating story of how he made good in the land of opportunity, the United States. It was a case of hard study and hard work. Obtaining his release in 1941, he was accepted at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, where he studied engineering chemistry. There followed a fellowship in organic chemistry at Harvard. He worked in Milwaukee as a research chemist for the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company and in 1951 co-founded Aldrich, which today, as Sigma-Aldrich, is the world's largest supplier of research chemicals. He spent forty years building Aldrich's distinctive reputation, and the extraordinary story of how he was eventually thrown off the board of Sigma-Aldrich will be of key interest to people in the chemical industry worldwide as well as to students of business. After leaving Sigma-Aldrich, he continued a fruitful career as an art collector and dealer, and he has some very pertinent and amusing things to say about the art world. Alfred Bader and his family have earned a reputation as generous benefactors, notably in the fields of chemistry, education and Jewish interests. Bader's personal philanthropy has been particularly directed toward helping students od chemistry and art history. He recently gave L6,000,000 to Queen's University to purchase and renovate Herstmonceux Castle in Sussex (the home of the old Royal Greenwich Observatory) - one more 'thank-you" to the Canadian institution that had enabled him to take the first steps on the road to success, so entertainingly described in this book. --- from book's dustjacket