Richard (Dick) Bauman passed away on February 12, 2018 at home, surrounded by his loving family, after a brave fight with cancer.
Dick had a long and successful career in engineering. He received his bachelor of science degree in civil engineering from Iowa State in 1960. He received his masters degree from the University of Utah in 1964, and his Ph.D from Arizona State in 1967.
He taught as a graduate assistant at Arizona State, and as a professor at the University of Colorado, the University of Oklahoma, the University of Hawaii, and at Northern Arizona University. He enjoyed mentoring students, employees and co-workers in whom he saw promise, and maintained contact with a number of them for decades.
Dick left the world of academia in the 1970s. He was the Director of City Planning for Scottsdale, Arizona for two years. Returning to Boulder Colorado in 1975, he worked for Centennial Engineering, and then co-founded his own transportation planning company “TransPlan”, which he ran from 1978 to 1984.
From 1984 to 1990 he was the Assistant, and then the General Manager of RTD. He was the Chief Engineer on the E-470 highway construction in 1990-1991. He managed the final design and construction of the first 5.5 mile segment of the E-470 toll road in Denver. For later phases of E-470 construction, he oversaw project design for the design-build construction team.
He returned to Centennial Engineering in 1992 as an Executive Vice President. He worked as Chief Engineer for the Northwest Parkway from 2000-2007, responsible for managing the planning, design and construction of a 9.5 mile toll road in the Denver Metro area.
During his career, Dick served as a consultant on transportation projects in Switzerland, Germany, Romania, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and China. In the last few years he worked as a consultant for various companies, most recently with L.S. Gallegos.
In 2002, Dick received the Roderick Downing Award for Significant Contributions to Transportation in Colorado, from the Colorado Department of Transportation. He received the Institute of Transportation Engineers Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003 (Colorado/Wyoming Section). He was Vice President of the Colorado/Wyoming Institute of Traffic Engineers (ITE) in 1977/1978, and President of that organization in 1978/1979.
Dick was a loyal and supportive partner to his wife of 57 years, Elizabeth. They traveled often, completing seven walking tours together in England, France and Ireland, and visited a number of other places in Europe and Japan. They raised two boys (Steve and David), and took great pleasure in their grandchildren. He cherished his daughters-in-law Cindy and Nicole.
Dick always met problems head-on, and would never give up until he solved them. He was a creative thinker when obstacles to his projects and goals arose. He had the ability to see the big picture on big projects, and understood how to bring all of the necessary elements together to completion. He was never hesitant to try something new. He took up sailing, kayaking, and motorcycling, and could fix almost anything. He enjoyed a glass of good red wine.
He leaves behind his loving wife Elizabeth (Liz), sons Steve (Cindy) and David (Nicole), brother Michael (Tamar), and grandchildren Emily, Jack, Nick, and Will.
On Saturday, March 3, 2018 a visitation/greeting time for family and friends to visit with the family will be held from 2pm to 3pm in the Pavilion of Reflection. A memorial service will be held at 3pm to honor Richard at Olinger Crown Hill Pavilion of Reflection, 7777 W. 29th Ave., Wheat Ridge, Colorado.
The family would like to thank the staff of Lutheran Collier Hospice, for their kind and caring assistance.
Memorial tributes may be made to Bienvenidos Food Bank, 3810 N. Pecos St., Denver, CO 80211.
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