John L. Bauer

"John Louis Bauer, Jr. died peacefully, surrounded by his family, on July 26, 2009 at Loomis House in Holyoke. Born and raised in Forest Hills, New York, John was the son of Elizabeth Schlatter and John Bauer Sr. He attended Regis High School and earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Notre Dame where he was a quarterback on the football team. A member of the Class of 1942, he was called into military service immediately following Pearl Harbor. After completing his training as a bomber pilot he was assigned to the 15th Airborn Division stationed first in North Africa and then in Italy. When the war ended he returned to the US and completed a Master's Degree at the Georgetown Foreign Service School. He went to work for the National Catholic Welfare Conference and was sent to Europe in 1948. He met and married Regina Marie Durant, from Somerville MA while working with NCWC and they were married in Munich, Germany in 1950. They spent 15 years in Europe living in Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Geneva, Paris and London. John assisted dissidents seeking political asylum in Western Europe to escape from Iron Curtain countries. In 1959 John was made a Knight Commander of the Order of St. Gregory by Pope John XXIII for his efforts on behalf of exiles (many of them from Catholic countries). Returning to the Unites States in 1960, he and his wife Regina, with their children Kathryn and James moved to Port Washington, New York, where their daughter Tricia was born in 1961. When Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts opened in 1967, John was appointed Vice President of Operations, a position he held until the Center was taken over by the city of New York. He earned a Master's Degree in law from NYU at night, and joined the firm of Donovan, Leisure, Newton & Levine in Manhattan. John retired to Duxbury, Massachusetts in 1985, but found that he missed the practice of law, so went back to work part-time at Quincy law firm Murphy, Hesse, Toomey & Lehane. He and Regina moved to White Cliffs, a golfing community in Plymouth, and where he was a member of the Board of Directors and later President of the White Cliffs Condominium Association. In 2004, at the age of 84, John finally retired and he and Regina moved to Loomis Village in South Hadley. He again put his organizational skills to good use, serving as President of the Residents Association. He is survived by his loving wife Regina; children Kathryn, James (and his wife Debbie), Patricia and granddaughter Kaitlin. A funeral Mass will be held at St. Patrick's Church in South Hadley on Wednesday, July 29th at 1:00 followed by a memorial service at Loomis Village."