Harry Y Bauer MD Retires After 50 Years of Service to Community

BIDMC Contact: M Pantridge
Phone: 781-453-3891
Email: mpantridge@bidneedham.org

Since the heyday of the Eisenhower administration, the devoted and unassuming Dr. Bauer has seen patients at his Highland Avenue office and rounded at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Needham, known in those days as Glover Memorial Hospital. His subspecialty was cardiovascular disease.

In a letter informing patients of his decision to retire, he alluded to "50 years of challenging and extremely satisfying relationships with patients, colleagues, professional staff, friends and institutions." He added, "Parting is such sweet sorrow!"

Jeffrey H. Liebman, president and chief executive officer of BID-Needham, said, "During Dr. Bauer's long service in Needham, even though medicine has changed dramatically, Dr. Bauer has remained an eternally giving and conscientious physician who always puts patients first."

Dr. Bauer served as chief of medicine and president of the medical staff at the hospital, and held an appointment as an assistant clinical professor at Tufts University School of Medicine. Among Dr. Bauer's passions is a love of classical music, an interest he shared with his late wife, Ruth Bauer. In retirement, he plans to stay in Needham and to pursue his avid interests in piano and bridge.

A native of Vienna, Austria, Dr. Bauer received his medical degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Ohio in 1950. From 1951 to 1953, he served as a captain in the U.S. Army Medical Corps in Germany and upon returning to this country, he opened a private practice in Needham. He completed his residency at Boston Medical Center in 1955. In 1956, he completed a Fellowship at New England Medical Center in Cardiology.

Dr. Bauer received many honors for his distinguished service. In 2004, the Massachusetts Medical Society's Charles River Division named Dr. Bauer Community Clinician of the Year. The same year, the BID-Needham board of trustees honored him with a proclamation that recognized his deeply held commitment to the highest ethical principles, reflected in his leadership of the hospital's Ethics Committee and his 20-year tenure as the hospital's patient care assessment coordinator. He also served as president of the Charles River District Medical Society and chair of the MMS Accreditation Committee.