James "Terry" Terrance Bauer

James “Terry” Terrance Bauer, 89, of Kennesaw, passed away peacefully in hospice care on September 29, 2025, surrounded by family. Born on June 5, 1936, in Manhattan, New York, to the late Helen and George F. Bauer, Terry had a near-ideal city childhood growing up in Brooklyn. He enjoyed rollerskating, playing neighborhood stickball, and going to the movies, beach, and church dances. He worked at a horse dude ranch one summer. After graduating from Brooklyn Technical High School, he got his Civil Engineering degree at Manhattan College in 1957. He surveyed land in the then-remote Northern California wilderness during a summer internship before his senior year in college. He began his career with Western Electric (now AT&T), and quickly trained up through Sales and Management programs and positions in New York City and New Jersey. He traveled with friends to the Caribbean. He saw Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews SRO in “My Fair Lady” and Barbra Streisand in “Funny Girl” on Broadway. He allowed his teenage nephew to wear jeans when he took him skiing for the first time in New England. He met the love of his life, Katherine “Nancy” Keaney, on a friends’ golf trip in Canada. They married in 1968, and after six happy years in Plainfield, New Jersey, he took a new opportunity with AT&T in Atlanta where he and Nancy raised their family in a similarly, near-ideal suburban setting of Village Mill in Dunwoody, Georgia. He loved supporting his family, growing in his faith, entertaining friends, watching football, and repurposing any and all found wood pieces for household projects of his own design. He also read widely and regularly beat all of us at Trivial Pursuit and Scrabble. He finished his 35-year career with AT&T in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, where he guided the very challenging sale and closure of a large, local manufacturing plant as Microelectronics Operations Vice President. Terry and Nancy retired to Suwanee, Georgia where they volunteered with Meals on Wheels and the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults at St. Brendan’s Catholic Church. He expanded his travel footprint to Alaska, most of Europe, and Central and South America on numerous trips and cruises with friends and family. It was a profound joy of his life to be a grandpa. He called the kids his “Wonderfuls” and meant it. He loved getting meals with friends and instituted the monthly “Men’s Movie Matinee” to see the rare movie made for adults that was not utter garbage these days. In his last two years, he enjoyed being a resident at Canterfield of Kennesaw Independent Living where he tried not to miss weekly Happy Hours and always meant to make it to the guys’ weekly Poker Game. He will be remembered for his kindness, charm, intellectual curiosity, humor, pragmatic positivity, easy elegance, and his unique mix as a meticulous planner and improvisational adventurer. He was blessed by lasting friendships with family members, classmates, colleagues, and neighbors everywhere he went. Terry is survived by his wife of 57 years, Nancy; his children, Chris (Trish) Bauer, Kathleen (Tom) Schmidt and Greg (Marilyn) Bauer; and six beloved grandchildren - Emma, Finnegan, Brandon, Henry, Knox and Bodie. He was preceded in death by his brother, George. A memorial service will be held on Tuesday, December 2, at 11:00 a.m. at All Saints Catholic Church, 2443 Mount Vernon Road, Dunwoody, Georgia, 30338. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Manhattan College. The family sincerely thanks all those who will remember Terry in their hearts.