William B. Bader


William Banks Bader was United States Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs from 1999 to 2001.

Early life and education

Bader's paternal grandfather was Edward Lawrence Bader, who was mayor of Atlantic City, New Jersey. He was educated at Pomona College, receiving a BA in 1953. He then studied as a Fulbright scholar at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and the University of Vienna. During his time in Munich, Bader married his Pomona college classmate, sculptor Gretta Lange; they had four children, one of whom is actor Diedrich Bader. He served in the United States Navy from 1955 to 1958 on active duty and later transferred to the Reserves before retiring with the rank of captain. He then studied German history at Princeton University under Gordon A. Craig, earning an MA in 1960 and a PhD in 1964.

Career

Bader joined the United States Foreign Service in 1965, and was posted to the Office of Regional Political-Military Affairs in Washington, D.C. In 1966, Sen. J. William Fulbright invited Bader to join the staff of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations where he was a senior staff member overseeing international security and arms control from 1966 to 1969. During this time, he also worked for the United States Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs, chaired by Sen. Stuart Symington.
In the early 1970s, Bader worked for the Ford Foundation in Paris. He became a fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in 1974.
Bader returned to government in 1976 when he was appointed Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. He returned to the staff of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in 1978 as Staff Director at a time when the committee was considering the Camp David Accords, the Taiwan Relations Act, and SALT II.
In 1981, Bader became Vice President and Senior Officer of the Washington, D.C. office of SRI International. He moved to California in 1988 to become Vice President of SRI International's policy division. He became president of the Eurasia Foundation in 1992. He spent 1996–97 as a visiting fellow at the World Bank Group.
In 1999, President of the United States Bill Clinton nominated Bader to be Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs and, after Senate confirmation, Bader held this office from November 18, 1999 until January 20, 2001.
Bader and his wife had four children, including actor Diedrich Bader.

Selected publications