Melvin P. Lader, Art History Professor, 58

[DGH]

.

Melvin P. Lader, an art history professor at George Washington
University for 27 years, died of congestive heart failure November 16,
2005, at his home in Fairfax County [Virginia], at the age of 58.

Dr. Lader joined GWU as an assistant professor of art history in 1978
and became a full professor in 1989.

As an art historian, he researched and wrote extensively about
Armenian-born artist Arshile Gorky and other artists in the abstract
expressionist movement. He co-wrote the catalog for the 2003 exhibition
"Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective of Drawings" at the Whitney Museum of
American Art.

Dr. Lader, a native of Auburn, New York, received a bachelor's degree
in 1969 and a master's degree in art history in 1972 from the State
University of New York at Albany. He received a PhD in art history from
the University of Delaware in 1981.

He and his wife shared an interest in genealogy, and they worked at a
family history center in Springfield helping people research their
family history.

He was a member of the Early American Pattern Glass Society and a
dealer in early American pattern glass.

He also was a member of the College Art Association, the Association of
Historians of American Art, Archives of American Art and the Catalogue
Raisonne Scholars Association.

Survivors include his wife of 33 years, Roberta Cole Lader of Fairfax
County, Virginia; two sons, Matthew Lader of Chesapeake, Virginia, and
Christopher Lader of Fairfax County, Virginia; and three sisters.

Washington Post