Paulist Fr. Robert William Baer was born on Dec. 12, 1925.
He made his first promises to the Paulist Fathers on Sept. 8, 1948, and was ordained a priest on May 1, 1954. He entered eternal life on March 20, 2020.
March 20, 2020
With sadness, we announce that our brother, Paulist Fr. Robert Baer, this morning entered eternal life. He was 94.
Fr. Baer died at Marion Manor Residence in Boston after a period of declining health.
He was born on December 12, 1925, in Jackson Heights, Queens, one of five children of John and Catherine Weber Baer.
He joined the U.S. Navy during World War II. In 1946, he earned his bachelor of science degree from Northwestern University.
After one semester at the Georgetown University School of Medicine, he entered the Paulist novitiate on August 24, 1947.
He made his first promise to our missionary society on September 8, 1948, and his final promise on September 8, 1951.
He was ordained a priest on May 1, 1954.
In his first assignment, Fr. Baer served for two years as associate pastor of Good Shepherd Church in New York City followed by three years as our vocation director for the Midwestern United States.
From 1959 to 1965, he was a "Newman Chaplain" (Catholic campus minister) in Boston, serving students at Tufts University and Brandeis University. During those years, he met the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (see photo).
From 1965 to 1967, he served as a campus minister at Newman Hall at the University of California, Berkeley.
Fr. Baer then studied for three years at the University of Nijmegen in Holland, earning a Doctorate of Pastoral Theology.
In 1970, he returned to Boston. From the early 1970s to 1978, he served as a pastor for the People of Promise, a Eucharist-centered worship community.
In 1982, he earned a doctorate in Analytical Psychology from the CG Jung Institute in Zurich, Switzerland. He then served in Boston as a Jungian analyst until 1994.
From 2008 to 2015, he lived in retirement at the The Paulist Center in Boston.
Fr. Baer is survived by his brother Paulist Fathers; his brother, George; as well as nieces and nephews.
Funeral arrangements will be announced at a later date.
