Dr Humberto P. Bauta––

A Beloved Pediatrician Says It Is Time To Retire

By Jan Howard

After 30 years caring for the children of Newtown and surrounding communities, Dr Humberto P. Bauta of Newtown will retire on March 15. But March 14 he will spend the day, just as he always has, in his Mt Pleasant Road office.

“There is something to be said about staying too long,” Dr Bauta said of his retirement, laughing.

But his patients and their parents do not feel quite the same about it, he admitted. There have been tears and disbelief from patients and their families when he handed out notes announcing his retirement and welcoming Dr Laura Nowacki and Dr Richard Auerbach to continue to care for the children and youth of the area.

“It has been a privilege and a joy to work with all my patients over these many years,” his note read. “Thank you for your confidence in me.”

One mother told him she could not believe he was leaving. “She said ‘you have to stay until my child’s 19,’” he said.

“I have mixed feelings about retiring,” Dr Bauta said. “At one point I feel kind of happy, another I’m sentimental. I have very mixed emotions.

“To my patients who cry, I don’t know what to say,” he said.

A party to celebrate his retirement will be held at the Portuguese Cultural Center on Sandpit Road in Danbury on March 16, from 5 to 9 pm. All past and present patients and their families are invited to attend. To RSVP, call Dr Bauta’s office, 426-3267, by Friday, March 7.

“My main goal was to take care of children and to teach the mothers to develop confidence in their doctor,” Dr Bauta said. “I wanted not just to care for an ill child but the worried mother as well.

“These past 32 years have been very rewarding for me,” he said.

Born and raised in Cuba, Dr Bauta earned his medical degree from the University of Havana. He finished his training in 1967 at Roosevelt St Luke’s Hospital in New York City and opened a practice, funded by a $5,000 loan, in a small New York City office.

Dr Bauta relocated to Newtown about 30 years ago, where he quickly became a fixture in the community. He and his wife Gretchen, who have been married almost 33 years, have three children, Christian, Pilar, and Nicolas. They were expecting Christian when they decided they wanted their children to grow up in the country, so they started looking, first in New Jersey, then in Westchester County, N.Y., and the Connecticut shore.

It was when he answered an advertisement in Danbury, however, that he learned about Newtown. Though the pediatric position in Danbury was already filled, he was told about an opening in Newtown.

In 1972, he, Gretchen, and 5-month-old Christian came to Newtown. “That’s when I started with Dr [Thomas] Draper,” Dr Bauta said. In 1974 he went out on his own. “I had a good practice by then.”

He interviewed a nurse who had just graduated from nursing school. “She has stayed with me all these years since I opened my practice in Newtown,” Dr Bauta said. “She is a very good nurse. I will miss working with her.”

The feeling is mutual for Margaret Lopes, who said she and Dr Bauta basically walked into the office together. “He’s a gentleman and very kind,” Ms Lopes said. “It’s hard for me to have him go. He’s fun and kind to his patients. He’s made it a very easy place to work.”

She said he has probably treated thousands of patients during his professional career. “One child is the grandchild of a former patient,” she said. “We have a third generation here.

“There are so many patients who are devoted to him, and the employees really enjoy being with him,” she said. “It’s been fun. It’s an end of an era.”

Dr Bauta has many plans for his retirement. “One of my main goals is helping other people,” he said. He intends to do volunteer work at Danbury Hospital where he serves on the steering committee for the Primary Care Round Table, which arranges for physician speakers.

“I enjoy that very much,” he noted, adding that he is also involved in selecting speakers for the annual pediatric conference in November.

Dr Bauta is also very interested in the arts. He is a member of the board of the Connecticut Orchestra and Opera in Stamford. “I’m helping them because they’re receiving cuts from the government,” he said. “I remember being in New York City at 25 years old and never having been to the opera. I was only making $40 a week then.”

Because of this love for the opera, Dr Bauta earmarks his donation to help Newtown High School students attend an opera twice a year.

He is also a patron of Carnegie Hall in New York City and attends quite frequently. He is interested in American art and has a collection of paintings. “I buy and sell them. It will keep me busy.”

Sports are on his agenda, also. “I’m becoming a good tennis player,” Dr Bauta said. “I’ll have more time to play now.”

He explained that when he first came to the United States, friends invited him to go skiing so he took lessons. “I’m a good but careful skier. I wear a helmet.”

Dr Bauta said he also hopes to help his wife, an avid gardener, with environmental aspects of gardening.

They also have plans to travel. Following his retirement party, Dr and Mrs Bauta are off to Lake Tahoe. They have already been to England and Spain, “looking for our roots.” He explained that his grandparents came to Cuba from Spain early in the 1900s. Gretchen, though born in Canada, was raised in England.

Dr Bauta laments he did not learn more about his grandparents’ reasons for leaving Spain. Because of that, he is writing his memoirs about his life in Cuba for his children.

The Bautas plan to continue to live in Newtown. When Dr and Mrs Bauta first came to Newtown, they rented, but a month later they learned about a property for sale. He walked the 50-acre property and fell in love with the open fields, where through the years they have had several pets for their children, including two horses that still reside there, and planted trees.

In addition to his love and care for children, Dr Bauta also believes in exposing them to nature. “I have birds now, but I’ve had kittens, and once brought a pot-bellied pig in for the children,” he said. “I think children are growing up away from nature, so I brought a little bit of nature into the office.”

Dr Bauta will continue to keep abreast of his profession by attending Continuing Medical Education classes. “There are new illnesses all the time, such as West Nile and Lyme,” he said. He has already signed up in case physicians are needed to provide smallpox vaccinations.

 “I will miss everybody,” Dr Bauta said. “It’s been 32 years of fun and knowing a lot of people,” Dr Bauta said. “I feel I’ve done a good job, and worked hard. I never had a person say ‘you did wrong to my child.’ I have done my job, I think.”