Editor's note: For more information on Ted Bauer, visit http://www.bauer.uh.edu/inmemoriam.htm.

July 13, 2004

Houston lost a major philanthropist when Ted Bauer died June 28. Ted was not often in the public eye. His name didn’t appear in the society pages. Though a billionaire, Ted remained in the same Houston home he’d bought almost thirty years ago. He was irritated when Forbes listed him among its 400 Richest Americans in 2001. “Now,” he grumbled, “everybody will think my living room is full of money.” He remained a modest man — a very private man — to the end.

His modesty couldn’t conceal his charisma, however. There was always an air of excitement around this quiet, 6-foot-3, white-haired patrician from Boston. His energy inspired the men and women at AIM Investments to create the seventh-largest mutual fund business in the world. Whatever he focused on became the best it could be.

He came to know the University of Houston late in his life. At the time, the UH College of Business Administration was suffering from the combination of success and a small endowment. The student population had grown while the faculty count had not. The college had a capital campaign proposal to remedy its problems, but needed funding.

Ted was extremely proud of his employees. He often said: “The most important assets of the company leave the building every night.” And, he believed it. When Mike Cemo, vice president and national sales manager of AIM and a UH graduate, told Ted that 400 of his 2,500 employees were graduates of UH, Ted became interested in the school that produced the people who ran so many parts of his extraordinarily successful company. So, Ted reviewed the college’s capital plan, and in 2000, he made the largest gift to a single college in the history of the University of Houston.

His astounding gift of $40 million sent a thrill through the College of Business Administration. The college proudly changed its name to the C.T. Bauer College of Business.

Significant changes occurred at once. Now there were funds once again to recruit top faculty from around the world. Within months the salary ratio of Bauer faculty moved into the 90th percentile compared to other business schools. Fifteen endowed positions and fifteen fellowships were created. With remarkable recruiting success, forty-one new world-class faculty joined the college.

The award-winning AIM Center for Investment Management opened, providing graduate students with real-time trading experience – an opportunity available at only a handful of universities. The $1.9 million Cougar Fund was launched and quickly grew to $3.5 million. Advisory boards for each department attracted top executives who worked with faculty to dovetail curricula with the highly technical needs of several different industries, including energy and money management. As a result, the Center for Executive Development created graduate certificates in specialized areas important to Houston industries, including energy risk management, energy accounting and financial services management.

In 2002, the college launched the Global Energy Management Institute, an elite membership organization serving the Houston energy industry. Pat Wood, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission chairman, was the keynote speaker at the launch of its Energy Risk Management Certificate program.

The endowment established Leadership & Ethics Week and the Distinguished Speaker Series, which brings outstanding speakers to campus. What we’ve learned through these speeches has been incorporated into a new business law and ethics module.

A gift this big creates a groundswell of excitement and participation. Faculty, students, and staff are energized. Curriculum is reinvented. Corporations see their needs being met. They hire graduates and become involved in the college. The excitement that began the day Ted Bauer “adopted” the college continues unabated four years later.

The Bauer college has a high percentage of first-generation college graduates. Many of them attend class full time and work 40-hour weeks in the professional world. They want their money’s worth from every class. They demand to be challenged. This is where they and Ted Bauer find common ground. He began his career as an analyst on Wall Street for $2,200 a year. He said, ‘“I got my MBA at night after working all day. I’ve always known how tough it was in the workplace. I’ve always been a nut and a pain, fighting for people to get a better break.”’

Thank you, Ted, for giving thousands a “better break” in life.

Arthur Warga, Dean, C.T. Bauer College of Business
Judge James A. Elkins Professor