Richard W. Bayer (1928-2018)

Dec. 01--Richard W. Bayer, a lawyer and a leader of community and charitable boards, including Lucas County Children Services and the American Red Cross, whose insurance agency regularly took top sales awards, died Wednesday in Community Hospice, Ashland, Ky. He was 90.

Mr. Bayer had Alzheimer's disease, his wife, Nora Harmon Bayer said. They moved to Inez, Ky., about 18 years ago. For a time afterward, he returned to Toledo regularly to work at the law firm he founded in the 1990s, after retiring from the insurance business.

Debbie Papay and Chris Steiner, who took over the firm, recalled his professional caring demeanor. He was, Ms. Papay said, an "old world, suit-and-tie gentleman through and through."

His insurance business, Bayer & Associates, was general agent in northwest Ohio for Aetna Life & Casualty and made regular headlines as the largest Aetna agency in the United States.

"He had friendship and deep respect for those people who worked with him and under him," his daughter Anida Bauer said.

When he was honored as a 50-year member of the Toledo Bar Association, Mr. Bayer's friend Bruce Hankins, also a career life insurance agent, said Mr. Bayer's role as Aetna general agent was to "push log chains uphill, herd cats, and keep the peace in a stable of prima donnas.

"Richard's trademarks were hard work, squeaky clean business dealings, honor, integrity, and keeping the clients' best interests as first priority," Mr. Hankins said in 2008.

Mr. Bayer had advanced to president of a local beer and wine distributorship by 1958 when he joined the Aetna agency run by his friend Samuel G. Carson. Mr. Bayer became general agent and president of Carson, Bayer & Associates in 1968. That year, Mr. Bayer was elected to the Young Presidents Organization, an international group for company presidents younger than 40. Also in his class were Charles L. McKelvy, Jr., president of First National Bank of Toledo, and Frederick "Fritz" Rudolph, president of the construction firm now called Rudolph/Libbe Cos.

The firm became Bayer & Associates when Mr. Carson left in 1970 to concentrate on his duties at the helm of the Toledo Trust Co.

Mr. Bayer in 1972 received the gold "T" award from the University of Toledo Alumni Association and in 1974, the Pacemaker of the Year Award from UT's business alumni association. He received the Toastmasters International Communication and Leadership Award in 1979, as one of 50 outstanding leaders.

"If you ever heard my husband speak, you would be mesmerized," his wife said. "He could grab ahold of an audience and [they would] focus on every word he was saying."

He served as chairman of the Toledo American Bicentennial Commission and was a commissioner of the Boy Scouts of America's Toledo Area Council. He was a past president of the Toledo Opera Association. He was chairman of the Greater Toledo Area Chapter of the American Red Cross, chairman of a regional advisory council, and was chairman of the National Board of Governors from 1982-85.

Lucas County commissioners appointed him to the Children Services Board in 1976, and he became chairman in 1981.

"He loved Toledo, and he was proud of the city, and he wanted to make everything better," his daughter said. "He believed in excellence. He was a man of deep faith, and he wanted to help."

He was born Feb. 6, 1928, to Beatrice and John Bayer and grew up in North Toledo. He was a 1946 graduate of Central Catholic High School, where he played baseball, football, and basketball. After a short stint pitching for a Philadelphia Phillies farm team, he attended John Carroll University and then UT. He received his law degree from UT in 1958.

Surviving are his wife, Nora Harmon Bayer, whom he married May 12, 1988; daughters, Anida Bauer and Christine Blaylock; stepson, H. Vernon Robinson; sister, Joann Gray; five grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be from 5-9 p.m. Sunday at Crum Funeral Home of Inez, Ky. Funeral services will be at 1 p.m. Monday at St. Michael Church, Paintsville, Ky., where he was a member.

The family suggests tributes to local chapters of the Alzheimer's Association or the American Red Cross.

First Published December 1, 2018, 12:00am

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