Sam Bauman, veteran Nevada journalist passes away

Sam Bauman, veteran Nevada Appeal writer, columnist, and an editor, died Dec. 11 in hospice care in Minneapolis, Minn., after a lengthy illness. He was born March 22, 1928.

He is survived by his son Nick and Nick’s wife Laura Stamer, his former wife Edith H. Bauman of Chicago, nieces Dinah and Nan Rittenhouse of South Lake Tahoe, and many cousins around the country.

Bauman enjoyed a long career in journalism, dating back to his youth in Lewisburg, Ohio, where his grandfather owned the Lewisburg Register.

Bauman grew up in Dayton, Ohio, where his father was employed by the Dayton Journal Herald. He was graduated from Ohio University after editing the university’s daily paper and the yearbook and working for the Athens Messenger newspaper.

Shortly after graduating in 1953 from OU he went on active duty with the U.S. Air Force as a second lieutenant.

He attended Air Force intelligence school in Denver and on graduation was assigned to a bomb squadron in Savannah, Georgia, returned to Lowry AFB in Denver for additional training. While there he took up skiing, a sport that he enjoyed until his death, and he skied most of the major ski resorts in Europe, Asia and the Western U.S.

He was reassigned to an intelligence squadron in Japan and was involved with the U-2 photo intelligence program.

He was released from active duty in 1956 and remained in Japan, working first for the Newsweek magazine under correspondent Bob Friend, then joining the editorial staff of the daily newspaper Pacific Stars and Stripes. There he began as a copy editor and advanced to front-page editor. Living in Tokyo, he founded the Foreign Film Critics Club to review Japanese movies.

He skied most of Japan’s ski resorts, including Shiga Kogen, later to be an Olympic site. He also covered the revolution that ousted South Korean President Siegmund Rhee.

Bauman wrote many stories about skiing in Japan for American magazines, including SKI and Skiing. He was invited by an airline to try skiing in Europe and while met some editorial employees of Europe Stars and Stripes, published in Darmstadt, Germany. He accepted an offer to the newspaper and worked as an editor and reporter before becoming a foreign news bureau in Italy reporting on Southern Europe, Africa, the Near East, and won awards for covering the Langarone dam disaster in Northern Italy where several thousand died as well as reporting on the collapse of the Greek government.

While based in Darmstadt he met and married Edith Hanna Else Spiess, going to Basel, Switzerland for the nuptials due to his family’s ties to the country.

Bauman wrote frequently for Stars and Stripes as well as for The Associated Press on ski racing and Formula One car racing.

After two sons were born, Marc and Nick, Bauman returned to Darmstadt and wrote copy on Africa and Southern Europe.

He continued to ski with the International Ski Journalists Club, enjoying almost all of the ski resorts of Europe and Scandinavia. He was involved with Soviet journalists in political meetings helping some move to the West.

He returned to the U.S. and worked at the N.Y. Daily News before taking The Associated Press bureau in the Pentagon. Union jurisdiction problems forced him to accept an offer from the Los Angeles Times. He later moved to Chicago to edit the Northwestern University Report magazine. He also wrote a ski column for the Chicago Tribune as well as working the sports desk.

He then moved up Michigan Avenue to edit a magazine for Playboy and to write house copy for Playboy. He later edited Success magazine and Plate World publications.

He moved to Nevada after writing direct mail programs in Newport Beach. He initially retired and began teaching skiing at a Heavenly ski resort before joining the staff of the Tahoe Daily Tribune in South Lake Tahoe editing the Ski Times as well as daily news.

He moved to Carson City to join the Nevada Appeal as an entertainment, sports, real estate and TV editor. He won several awards from the Overseas Press Club and skiing and outdoors magazines and associations.

He retired in 2009 but had continued to write for the Appeal.

Per his wishes, no service will take place.