John D. Bauman

John Bauman Obituary
JOHN D. BAUMAN, 95, of Columbus Ohio passed peacefully on Thursday 11/23/2023. Dad wanted to part with these words:
I'd better write this while I still have a shred of humor. And by the time I'm done it'll be so long that a stranger seeing this might think I really WAS somebody. DEAD WRONG! (Small figure of speech, there.)
I enlisted in the Navy at 17 the Monday after high school graduation, did my hitch, went to Denison U. for two years and graduated from Ohio University two years after that. I always had SOME kind of job from age nine. I did have a regular job after college, though, a year selling on the road, then 32 years with the Blues (that's Blue Cross not Blues Brothers) as Communications & advertising VP and Corporate Secretary. Lastly, another nine years with Physicians Health Plan/United Health Care of Ohio as Corporate Communications Director (the latter nine were what I loosely termed my "pre-retirement years.")
No jokes about family. I'm survived by my son, Michael Bauman (Sherry) of Hilliard and daughter Beth Meier (Les) of Radnor. There are my four granddaughters, Jamie Bauman (Josh) and Danielle Bauman (Mike/Sherry) and Anita Galloway (Brent) and Sarah Brittsan (Matt); and my three great grandchildren, Rowan (Anita/Brent), Maddox (Danielle), and Phineas (Sarah/Matt).
I married my first wife, Anita E. Bauman, in 1954. We had 2 beautiful children together and were married for 32 years before her life was cut short, after a long and painful battle with cancer. She was 54 years old and was gone much too soon. I had long known my second wife, Pennie L. Sabel. "Pen" and I were married for 17 years. She died very unexpectedly on November 26, 2014. Nobody said life was fair.
Anita and I had rented RVs and, with motorcycles on a trailer behind, traveled on a number journeys throughout the west and southwest with the kids. I had dreamed of world travel since learning what "geography" was. Our trips within the lower U.S. and Canada were just the beginning of our adventures. I'd also wanted to learn skydiving, and did. Anita, Mike and Beth didn't grandly approve. So, to keep peace, I eventually quit skydiving and took up scuba diving. Anita and I later went to well-worn venues like Cozumel and the Caymans. She was unable to take up scuba by then and gamely snorkeled the reefs from above me as I explored below. Our adventures were cut short on September 6, 1986 when we sadly lost her.
Pen had her own business that often took her abroad. Both of us were fully employed and in our free windows of time, we were fortunate enough to be able to combine business and pleasure with trips throughout Europe. I never tried to estimate miles in the air and on the ground, but before we were done we'd traveled extensively in over 50 countries, continuing my dreams of traveling the world. Just Pen, me, and a guide - well, sometimes with a guide, sometimes by the seats of our britches. Sadly and suddenly, Pen died on November 26, 2014.
Among all the travels with Anita and then later with Pen, I have been out west and all over the united states. I have dived most of the best reefs and wrecks of the Caribbean, both coasts of Central America, the Turks & Caicos, the Netherlands Antilles, the Red Sea, the Coral Sea, Fiji and places that now escape me. After 700-plus dives I stopped logging them. Our land trips led us to cities where old and ancient architecture abounds but more often I've made adventure trips on all the continents but Antarctica.
There've been good years and sad years but many great times. Yet when one gets to be north of the double 8s, the body sometimes wears out in an unpleasant variety of its parts and pieces. And I'm ready to pack it in. My ashes go to the four winds. No flowers. Make any remembrances to your charity of choice. Friends may call 1-4 p.m. Saturday January 20, 2024 at Egan-Ryan Northwest Chapel 4661 Kenny Rd.
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