Widow Recalls Communist Hunt 50 Years Ago

Her memory fresh as yesterday, her eyes alert behind rose-tinted glasses, 91-year-old Virginia Rader sat sipping a cup of coffee in her cozy North Seattle living room.

She had agreed, somewhat reluctantly, to talk about "the terrible events" that took place 50 years ago. In the intervening years, she has never spoken out publicly.

But it goes beyond the self-imposed silence.

Virginia Rader has never even read "False Witness," perhaps the best known of her late husband's more than a dozen books.

She says with soft-spoken emphasis, "I don't want to go through it again."

"False Witness," newly republished by the University of Washington Press on the 50th anniversary of the events, is a first person account of how Melvin Rader, a University of Washington philosophy professor, was falsely accused of being a communist. Rader died in 1981 at age 77.

In 1948, a paid government witness implicated Rader and others before the Canwell Committee, a state legislative committee that had been granted "all powers necessary and convenient" to ferret out communist influences.

Never mind civil rights. Forget due process. This was McCarthyism before Joe McCarthy gave his name to the ugly Red hunts of the 1950s.

It took nearly two years before Rader could clear himself, a time of acute trauma for him, Virginia and their four children, ages 5-11.

"We kept having accidents that summer," sighs Virginia. "One of my sons cut his hand and I couldn't stop the bleeding."

The FBI questioned the neighbors. The family received ominous phone calls, perhaps from cranks. Virginia feared that her children, who had overnight become social outcasts, might be kidnapped.

She refused to attend the hearings. But she was a vital part of her husband's defense.

The government witness, George Hewitt, testified that Rader had attended a secret communist training school in New York in 1938. In reality, he and his family spent those summer weeks at a forest camp near Granite Falls.

But, when they went looking for proof, it mysteriously had vanished.

Virginia's memory was invaluable. She says, "In that time between wake and sleep, I could relive the summer events, one day at a time."

What Virginia remembered were visits to an itinerant dentist - she could visualize how the dentist positioned his tools. In that way, they convinced him they had been patients.

There were other pieces of evidence: a receipt for optical repairs, an old bill from Frederick & Nelson.

But, denied an opportunity to present that evidence, Rader remained under suspicion for months. Eventually, Seattle Times reporter Ed Guthman wrote the Pulitzer Prize-winning stories that helped clear Rader's name.

Yet the taint would never entirely vanish. A new acquaintance might say, "Oh, you must be related to that University of Washington professor who . . ."

When daughter Barbara Rader was 13, she spoke about the United Nations to her junior-high classroom. The teacher told her to sit down, saying, "I don't want communists speaking in my class."

The other children had similar experiences. Daughter Miriam Rader eventually moved to Spain, where she lives still.

Many years later, casual acquaintances were questioned about their relationship with the family when they sought government-security clearances.

"There were always rumors," Virginia says. "On Fridays for seven years, we had students drop in for refreshments and a chance to talk. The rumor was we were having satanic ceremonies."

The Rader family still doesn't list phone numbers. There's too much concern about incidents like the killing of a prominent Seattle lawyer and his family, also mistakenly thought to be communists.

Virginia isn't bitter, but she does feel the university should have supported her husband during those dark months. And she wishes her husband could be remembered more for his considerable scholarly and social accomplishments.

He worked to protect civil and individual rights and for such causes as abolishing loyalty oaths at the UW.

"He was a liberal," Virginia says. "But he never would have been a communist. His field was social ethics."

Virginia remains intellectually and physically active. She walks around Green Lake for exercise. Her daughter Barbara, who lives with her, gave her a poster she treasures. It reads: "Live long enough to be a problem to your children."

Trained as a sculptor in the UW's first sculpture-degree program, Virginia keeps a bust she did of Melvin, a touching work, on the stairwell of her home.

She speaks of her undergraduate days with nostalgia, days when she dreamed of a career.

"Those were the days when I was on fire. I'm not on fire any more."

------------------------------------------------------------------ Jean Godden's column appears Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday in the Local News section of The Times. Her phone message number is 206-464-8300. Her e-mail address is: jgod-new@seatimes.com ------------------------------------------------------------------