Teacher of learning-disabled loved job's challenge

7/25/2003

Larry L. Rader, who taught learning-disabled children at Toledo's Fulton Elementary School for 20 years, died Wednesday in the Blanchard Valley Regional Health Center, Findlay. He was 51.

Mr. Rader died of complications from a stroke, his wife Carla Rader said.

He began teaching at the central-city school in the early 1980s, Mrs. Rader said.

“The thing he loved most was helping the kids,” she said. “It was a challenge for him to help learning disabled kids, and he loved to see them improve”

For the last three years, Mr. Rader had been involved in TAPESTRIES, which stands for Toledo Area Partnership in Education: Support Teachers as Resources to Improve Elementary Science.

Through the program, his wife said, Mr. Rader traveled to other central-city schools and helped develop a “hands-on science curriculum.”

He had planned to continue with the program in the fall, Mrs. Rader said.

TAPESTRIES began in 1998 and is funded by a $5.2 million National Science Foundation grant.

Mr. Rader was born in Fostoria and raised in Findlay. He attended Mount Vernon Nazarene College in Mount Vernon, Ohio, and the University of Toledo. In 1979, he married the former Carla Harp and the couple settled in Findlay.

Mr. Rader was an usher and member of College First Church of God. He especially enjoyed attending his son's hockey games, Mrs. Rader said.

Mr. Rader also was a Civil War buff and attended battle re-enactments.

Surviving are his wife, Carla Rader; son, Adam Rader, and sister, Carol Rader.

The body will be in the Coldren-Crates Funeral Home after 3 p.m. Sunday. Services will be at 11 a.m. Monday in College First Church of God.