Dr Bauta Honored For Community Service

By Darlene Jackson

Dr Humberto Bauta, Newtown pediatrician and resident, says he “has it all – a home, a family, and a successful practice,” and now he has the Dr Keren Alexander Community Service Award. The presentation was made by Dr Jonathan Alexander for the Danbury Regional Commission on Child Care, Rights, and Abuse, Inc (DRCCCRA) at its recent 25th annual luncheon at The Inn at Ethan Allen.

The award is named in honor of the late Dr Keren Alexander, a forensic psychologist and DRCCCRA board member who worked to protect children. It is given to individuals who have made significant contributions to the children and families of the Greater Danbury communities and honors efforts to protect children by supporting families. Dr Bauta, Danbury Mayor Gene Eriquez, and Dr Jack Gundy, who was a member of the original board of the DRCCCRA, were recipients. Dr Jack Fong, chairman of Pediatrics Department of Danbury Hospital and a Newtown resident, was presented a similar award by the DRCCCRA in 1997.

Programs to which Dr Bauta has donated time, service, and energy are Newtown Youth Services, the Bethel Well-Child Clinic, and the Danbury Hospital Allergy Clinic.

Dr Bauta and his wife Gretchen spearheaded the “Positive Parenting” education program at Newtown Youth Services (NYS). Their friend Eileen Jones, who developed the program in England, invited the staff of NYS to come and observe the program. Later she visited here as an observer and consultant. Since the fall of 1998, five to ten groups averaging eight mothers of pre-school and elementary youngsters have taken the course each school year, according to Debbie Richardson, Newtown Youth Services executive director. Roseanne Loring is the parent education coordinator.

In 1999, “Teen Zone” for parents of middle school and high school students started at NYS. Some of these groups are taught in homes, where parents can assemble in more casual, convenient, and comfortable settings. Each group meets for five sessions. Additionally there is the “Positive Parenting” program at NYS for parents of children with special needs. Referrals for all the programs come from the schools, Department of Children and Families, and other social service agencies. Addie Sandler and Nina Alred conduct these sessions.

Other off-shoots of the original program are the new mothers program that meets once a month and the Father’s Night when fathers meet with Jeff Steinberg, a therapist and counselor. NYS has made the “Positive Parenting” program available to local business through lunch hour seminars.

Ms Richardson says that Dr Bauta is always a wise and available consultant for the programs that they have facilitated. His dream is that every teenage boy and girl have training for “Positive Parenting” programs.

Since 1973, Dr Bauta has worked with the Danbury Allergy Clinic and Dr David Zolov Tuesdays from 7:30 to 10 am, and he has worked with the Bethel Visiting Nurses Association two days a week for two and a half hours examining new babies. Now that the VNA has a physician’s assistant on staff, he only does this as backup.

The Bautas are passionate about conservation and keeping Newtown beautiful. They work with the Newtown Forest Association and provide for feeding and replanting of the trees on Main Street. They facilitate a speakers program in the schools and for the social service agencies.

Dr Bauta was educated at University of Havana and came to the United States “running from Fidel Castro” in February 1962, took the Educational Council for Foreign Medication Graduates (ECFMG) exam in March of that year and applied for an internship at Roosevelt Hospital in New York City. He was there for one year of internship, three years or residency, and one year of fellowship. During that time he worked in the allergy department and did rotation at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens Rusk Institute in child orthopedics, and Sloan Kettering Hospital.

He opened his first practice at 310 West 56th Street with help from his colleagues at Roosevelt. He also worked with an adoption agency at 45th and Third Avenue, where he did physical examinations for children being adopted. He was also filling in for doctors who were on vacation and did many home visits in Manhattan.

It was during this time when he was working three jobs that he met his wife at a party given by her sister, Nancy, who was a social worker in the psychiatric department at Roosevelt Hospital. “I think we should do things together,” he said at this first meeting.

That was in January in 1970. They were married in September at a large family wedding. He was the last of 12 children and she the last of nine to marry. The wedding was in Toronto where the bride’s widowed father lived. “You know Hispanics. They invite everyone,” he said. They even had Cuban food “prepared by Canadians. Ah ya, ya!”

His wife, though born in Canada, lived most of her young life in England, until she attended high school in Virginia. She was an anthropology graduate of McGill University in Montreal before earning her social work degree at London School of Economics.

The newlyweds returned to New York and lived in a high-rise apartment at 86th and Lexington Avenue. Their first child, a son, Christian, was born there in 1972 and they began to think about leaving the city.

Dr Bauta made inquiries in Westchester, New Jersey, Purchase, and Danbury, where he was referred to Dr Thomas Draper in Newtown. He was hired on the spot and told to start the next day. The family moved temporarily to the Stony Hill Inn until they could assess their future and look over Newtown.

Dr Bauta stayed while Dr Draper went back to school to get his degree in public heath. The Bautas moved to the house on the corner of Taunton Hill and Taunton Lane, where they lived from 1972 until they built their own home in 1976. Daughter Pilar was born in 1973, and in 1975, Dr Bauta purchased land, built his current office, and opened his own practice. Nicholas was born in 1976.

Dr Bauta is animated, very gentle and kind. He finds all children a “great joy.” With a twinkle in his eye, a big smile and good humor he treats each child as special. He has an uplifting spirit.

He is also a proud and joyous father, loving to talk about his children and their budding careers.

Christian graduated from St Margaret’s McTernan in Waterbury, received a degree in American literature and English from Middlebury College in Vermont and spent three years in China, studying for one year at Beijing University and working in Hong Kong for an American stock firm creating mutual funds. He took the first and second parts of Chartered Financial Analyst exam there. Part three he took when he returned to America to study for his masters degree at University of Michigan. He was honored at his recent graduation as being a top student in the class. Currently on an around-the-world trip, he will return to Newtown August 15 and October 1 will begin a job as a consulting strategy analyst in Chicago.

Pilar graduated from Westover School in Middlebury and Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania with a degree in art history. She lives in New York and is studying alternative healing methods including herbology, nutrition, and aromic therapy.

Nicholas graduated from Kent School where he developed his interest in painting and sculpting. He graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design and has his own gallery in Providence, where he is also trying to develop inexpensive studios and living space for fellow artists.

Two horses, a Vietnamese pot bellied pig named Lolita, three cats, three dogs, and one old chicken round out the Bautas’ happy homestead. Chickens at the Bautas die of old age since the children would never allow one to be killed for dinner, nor would they eat their eggs.