Rader went to Riverview Elementary School, where he was a boy scout and was involved in church groups and projects. When he was younger he kept to himself, was courteous, not very humorous, and did not like music. All of his family and friends considered him to be your average child.
In 1963, he graduated from Wichita Heights High School and worked in a grocery store. In 1965, he went to Kansas Wesleyan University and struggled to achieve good grades. He was a busy man who tried to do well in school, while also trying to provide for himself. While attending Kansas Wesleyan, he worked at a grocery store in Wichita on the weekends. He was also in a sorority that was supposed to make him more sociable and outgoing. It was around this time that he started breaking into houses and stealing items that he liked because it gave him excitement he had never felt before and an insane adrenaline