Working well with others and using her creativity to get her work completed, Nancy Marshall Bauer began her career as an elementary school teacher in Madison, Wisconsin, from 1963 to 1966. At the time, she was assigned to teach experimental radio mathematics to her class and became interested in the field herself. She then decided to visit the local radio station on her day off. When she got there, she was made aware that the woman in charge of the station was announcing her retirement. She considered herself to be at the right place at the right time. Ms. Bauer feels fortunate to have enjoyed working with great and enthusiastic people in a field they were pioneering together.
After finishing her primary school teaching position, Ms. Bauer served the University of Wisconsin–Madison as an educational communications specialist from 1966 to 1971 and assistant professor from 1971 to 1972. During this time, she also directed the educative services section of the Educational Communications Board, later serving in the same role at Wisconsin Educational TV and Radio Networks, now known as Wisconsin Public Television (WPT), from 1972 to 1989. While working at WPT, Ms. Bauer served the Central Educational Network as director from 1973 to 1980 and from 1983 to 1989, as well as executive committee member from 1973 to 1974, and chaired the Instructional TV Council from 1977 to 1979.
In addition to this tenure, Ms. Bauer served the Instructional TV Cooperative on its advisory board from 1972 to 1975 and executive committee from 1976 to 1977. She was also on National Public Radio’s instructional radio advisory committee from 1979 to 1982, and served Public Broadcasting Systems on its instructional TV advisory committee from 1978 to 1979 and service committee from 1980 to 1983. Furthermore, Ms. Bauer was an ITV study committee member of Corporate Public Broadcasting from 1983 to 1985.
Prior to the start of her professional career, Ms. Bauer pursued a formal education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she attained a Bachelor of Arts in 1950 and Master of Science in 1963. Since graduating, she has produced and written numerous nationally-distributed instructional series, including the TV program “Patterns in Arithmetic and Looking Out Is In” in 1967 and the radio show “Inquiry: The Justice Thing” in 1973. Now in retirement, Ms. Bauer spends her time writing and publishing about her family history, as well as contributing articles in history to genealogical magazines. Her work on the Wisconsin history series won the Gavel Award from the American Bar Association in 1975.
A member of the National Association of Educational Broadcasters, Ms. Bauer was recognized as a Ford Foundation scholar between 1961 and 1963 and received the Ohio State Award in 1975. The following year, she was bestowed with the Golden Mike Award by the American Legion. Moreover, Ms. Bauer is a recipient of the coveted Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award and was selected for inclusion in the first edition of Who’s Who in Entertainment and several editions of Who’s Who in Finance and Industry, Who’s Who in the Midwest and Who’s Who in the World.
Ron Bornstein was Ms. Bauer’s first mentor in the radio communications field, who encouraged her and was a very big help to her career. Today, she is married to her loving husband of 45 years, Helmut Robert Bauer, and is the proud mother of two children, Margaret Ann and William Patrick, as well as a grandmother to seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild. She enjoys traveling and gardening in her spare time.
