Submitted By: Dan Rich

Robert A. Leader

May 26, 1924 - April 11, 2006

South Bend Tribune 4/16/2006

Robert A. Leader, Artist, Teacher and Flag-Raiser, dies at 81. Robert Arthur Leader died April 11th in Holy Cross Village, Notre Dame, Indiana, after a long illness. Leader was born May 26, 1924, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Charles Arthur and Geraldine Leader. He attended North Quincy High School, Massachusetts, and studied at the Boston Institute of Fine Arts.

He volunteered for the U.S. Marine Corps the day after the Pearl Harbor attack, was called up in June 1942, and served in the Pacific Theatre. As a corporal with E Company, 28th Marines, 5th Marine Division, he was in the squad that captured the summit of Mt. Suribachi, Iwo Jima, and helped raise the first flag on February 24th, 1945. He was shot during later action on Iwo Jima. He met his future wife, then-Lieutenant (j.g.) Dorothy Riehl, USNR, when she was his nurse during his recuperation.

After discharge from the Marines in 1945, Leader received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Yale University School of Art and Architecture, and his Master of Fine Arts from the University of Illinois in 1952. After two years teaching at Clark College in Dubuque, Iowa, he was hired by the Art Department of the University of Notre Dame in 1953. He taught painting and design at Notre Dame for 36 years, but was best known for his Art History course ("Art Trads") which was for many years the most popular elective in the University. He taught thousands of Notre Dame students how to see and appreciate the world around them. He kept to the end of his life many of the notes he received from former students who, years after leaving Notre Dame, wrote to thank him when they finally had a chance to visit Ravenna, Karnac or Angkor Wat.

Leader's artistic output included hundreds of paintings, stained glass windows he designed, and churches he decorated throughout the United States. He also designed the stained glass and supervised the redecoration of the chapel of the Notre Dame de France Center in Jerusalem. In the 1950s and 1960s, he lectured widely on stained glass and liturgical art. Locally, his work is in St. Matthew's Cathedral, Little Flower Church, St. Pius X, Granger and St. Thomas in Elkhart.

Robert and Dorothy Leader were married 56 years. He is survived by Dorothy, their children Charles (Becky) Leader of McLean, Virginia; Elizabeth Leader (David Hill) of La Habra Heights, California; Damian (Joan) Leader of McLean, Virginia; Andrew (Sheri) Leader of Tempe, Arizona; and Christopher (Linda) Leader of Granger, Indiana; and nine grandchildren, Elizabeth, Matthew, Kathryn, Alexandra, Robert, Brittany, Courtney, Colin, and Elizabeth Francesca.

A funeral mass will be held on Tuesday, April 18th at 9:30 a.m. in Sacred Heart Basilica at Notre Dame. He will be buried at Cedar Grove Cemetery. Memorials may be made to: Women's Care Center, P.O. Box 283, Mishawaka, Ind. 46546-0283. The HICKEY Funeral Homes, 17131 Cleveland Road, is assisting the family with arrangements.