Richard Milton Bauer of Newark, Delaware and Town Point, Maryland, died in his sleep on May 5, 2013.

“Dick” was born on September 18, 1930 in Philadelphia and was raised in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Dick was the youngest of the four children of Edwin Frank Bauer and Helene Stoerrle Bauer. He graduated from Upper Southampton-Warminster High School in 1948 and received his Bachelor’s degree in Landscape Architecture from Penn State University in 1952. He married his high school sweetheart, Elizabeth Joan Chandlee, on December 26, 1953. They honeymooned in Lansing, Michigan where he went on to earn his Master’s Degree in Urban Planning at Michigan State University.

Dick began his career in the Delaware County Planning Department and then moved on to the Berks County Planning Department as Planning Director. In 1963, he was appointed Director of Planning and Zoning for New Castle County, Delaware where he remained Director for over 20 years.

Dick is survived by his wife of nearly 60 years, Joan, and their four children: Elisabeth Bauer DiStefano and her husband Ernest DiStefano, Richard Milton Bauer Jr., Benjamin Chandlee Bauer, and Caroline Chandlee Bauer and her partner Sharon Czerwinski. Dick is also survived by his 4 grandchildren: Benjamin Chandlee Bauer Jr. and his partner Valerie Kehnast, Laura Elisabeth Taylor and her partner Amy O’Brien, Erin Chandlee Czerwinski and Elizabeth Bauer Czerwinski. He is also survived by 6 nieces, 3 nephews, numerous grandnieces and nephews, and 1 great-grandniece.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 11:00am on Thursday, May 9, 2013 at St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church, East Main Street and North Chapel Street, Newark, Delaware. Burial will follow at All Saint’s Cemetery, 6001 Kirkwood Highway, Wilmington, Delaware.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Dick’s memory to the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center c/o R.T. Foard & Jones Funeral Home, 122 West Main St., Newark, DE 19711.