Walter Graham Arader, W’42, honorary Trustee of the University of Pennsylvania and former Pennsylvania state official, died at home in Radnor, Pennsylvania on January 18. He was 95 years old.

Mr. Arader earned his BS in economics from the Wharton School and was a member of Penn’s first Naval ROTC Unit. He served in the Navy during World War II and achieved the rank of Commander in the Naval Reserve in 1958.

His career spanned fields such as fundraising, printing, education, government and management consulting. After his military service, he worked in Penn’s Development Office. Years later, he was a key volunteer during the Program for the Eighties fundraising campaign at Penn.

He joined the printing firm of Edward Stern & Company in Philadelphia in 1952 and assumed financial and managerial control in 1959. He served as president of the Graphic Arts Association of Philadelphia in 1964. He effected the merger of Stern with Majestic Press in 1965 and served as president of the combined operations. He also operated a consulting firm that specialized in mergers and acquisitions for small to medium sized companies on the East Coast.

In 1971, he was appointed as Pennsylvania’s secretary of commerce. He later served as commissioner of the Pennsylvania Securities Commission from 1974 to 1980.

In 1974, he guided a bill through the state legislature proposing that the state purchase the papers of Louis I. Kahn on behalf of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. The purchase was finalized in 1976, and the following year, the Commission placed the Louis I. Kahn Collection on permanent loan to the University of Pennsylvania (Almanac October 22, 1991).

Mr. Arader was elected to Penn’s Board of Trustees in 1979 (Almanac January 23, 1979) and participated on the Executive, Budget & Finance and External Affairs Committees, as well as the Facilities & Campus Planning Committee, which he chaired. At Penn, he was also a founding member of the Commonwealth Relations Committee, a board member of the Wharton Alumni Association, chairman of the American Civilization Advisory Council and a member of the American Selection Committee for the Thouron Scholarship Program. The Morris Arboretum, the Penn Museum and the Penn Fund benefitted from his support.

Mr. Arader is survived by four children, W. Graham Arader, III (Bo-In), Georgeann Arader Berkinshaw, C’74 (Edwin R. Berkinshaw), Christopher, C’75, and Alexander, WG’82 (Adrienne Carhartt Arader), 14 grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; and one sister, Josephine H. Hueber.

Donations in his memory may be made to Harriton House, 500 Harriton Road, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010, where a beekeepers’ club that Mr. Arader started still exists.