Dr. Harry Bauer of Needham, dies at age 86

By Jenna Nierstedt, Globe Correspondent | May 30, 2009

Patients and peers said it was rare to find a physician as committed to his profession as Dr. Harry Bauer of Needham.

During a 50-year career as an internist, Dr. Bauer never hesitated to see a patient, make house calls, or attend the funerals of patients who died, said his son Matthew of Washington, D.C.

"To him, medicine was a noble profession - he always used that term - and he was very much an old-school physician who devoted as much time as was necessary to the patient," he said. "He was not like a factory."

Even at 84, when Dr. Bauer retired in 2006, he was reluctant to do so, citing his elderly patients who were accustomed to his care and the notion that he had a "responsibility to contribute to society," Matthew said.

Dr. Bauer, who spent his medical career in Needham, where he ran his own practice and served at the former Glover Memorial Hospital, died May 6 at Tippett Hospice Home in Needham from chronic renal disease and congestive heart failure. He was 86.

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