Solomon Leader *52

Solomon Leader, a professor emeritus of mathematics at Rutgers, died Aug. 13, 2011. He was 85.

Leader served in the Army from 1944 to 1946, and completed his bachelor’s degree at Rutgers in 1949. In 1952, he earned a Ph.D. in math from Princeton and then began teaching at Rutgers. He rose to full professor by 1961, and retired in 1991.

Leader specialized in research in general topology and functional analysis. In retirement, in 2001, he published his book, The Kurzweil-Henstock Integral and Its Differentials.

Active with the Princeton International Folk Dance Group, he was invited to perform as the prince in Princeton Ballet’s 1958 production of The Sleeping Beauty. He performed in other ballet productions into the early 1960s, and from 1973 through 1983 he returned to perform as the father of the “big family” in The Nutcracker.

In recent years, he said he was often stopped on the street in  Princeton by one of his now-adult Nutcracker children who said, “Hi, Daddy.”

He is survived by Elvera, his wife of 50  years; three children; and three grandchildren.

Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.