LACONIA, N.H. – Frederick Edward Bauer Jr., 86, of 19 Bois Circle, Laconia, N.H., died on Saturday, August 2, at Ledge View, Taylor Community in Laconia, after a long period of failing health.

He was born on July 12, 1922, son of Frederick Edward Bauer Sr., and Caroline Charlotte Sternkopf, in the West Hoboken section of Union City, N.J. He was educated in the public schools in New Jersey and graduated from Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts in 1939. He completed an undergraduate degree at Princeton University in 1943 where he was a founding member of the Prospect Club. Upon graduation from college he entered military service. His longest assignment was as first lieutenant in command of the Army airways communication system detachment at Meeks Field in Iceland.

In 1947, he received a master’s degree from Columbia University prior to his appointment to the faculty at Mount Hermon School. While at Mount Hermon he married Ruth Byrd Tappan and their children Dorothy Anne, David Llewellyn, and James Frederick were born. During his career at Mount Hermon he taught economics and United States history, coached varsity swimming, chaired the history department, and served as librarian. In 1967, he returned to Columbia University where he was awarded a master’s degree in library science. In 1970, he became catalogue librarian and later associate librarian at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Mass. He was also active in the Holden (MA) Historical Society and the United Church of Christ in Massachusetts.

Upon retirement in 1984, he and Ruth moved to their longtime summer home on Mirror Lake in Tuftonborough, N.H., where he became active in the Mirror Lake Community Church and the Melvin Village Community Church. He also served a number of terms on committees of the New Hampshire State Library and the New Hampshire Historical Society. In 1993, Fred and Ruth moved to the Taylor Community in Laconia, N.H., where they helped establish the Taylor Community Library, now known as the Bauer Library, and became members of the Laconia Congregational Church.

Fred Bauer was an elected member of The American Antiquarian Society and the Massachusetts Historical Society. He was also a member of the New Hampshire Historical Society, the New Hampshire Library Association, and several local historical societies in Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Ruth, of Laconia, N.H.; daughter, Dottie and her husband, Jim Gardner, of Keene, N.H.; son, Jim and his wife, Lynn, of Minot; and his four grandchildren: Jocelyn Bauer Gardner of Somerville Mass., Christine Bauer of Boston Mass., Caroline Bauer, a student at Florida Institute of Technology, and Daniel Bauer Gardner, a student at the University of Chicago.

He was predeceased by his son, David, who died in 1956.