E. Steven Bauer, 85, pharmaceutical executive

E. Steven Bauer, 85, formerly of Chestnut Hill, a retired pharmaceutical executive, died Nov. 14 at the Hill at Whitemarsh, a retirement community, of complications from surgery.

At 15, Mr. Bauer left his native Germany with his older brother to escape the Nazis. His brother went to Palestine and joined the Royal Air Force; Mr. Bauer went to to London, where he apprenticed himself to an apothecary. He completed high school and studied pharmaceutical chemistry at the University of London and Oxford University.

During World War II, Mr. Bauer served in the London civil defense during the Battle of Britain. He was exempt from military service because he was working with a scientific team in London to develop an antidote to poison gas. He completed his work on the antidote at Cornell University. At the end of the war he was reunited with his parents, who had survived the Holocaust, in New York.

Mr. Bauer taught pharmacology at Cornell Medical School, and then for 20 years was with the pharmaceutical company Parke, Davis & Co. as a senior manager, responsible for operations in Europe, Asia, and Africa. In the early 1950s, he spent two years in India and Pakistan recruiting staff and overseeing construction of pharmaceutical manufacturing facilities in those countries.

In 1970, Mr. Bauer became a vice president for Wyeth International in Radnor. While with Wyeth, he was the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association's representative to the World Trade Organization and World Health Organization, and was the founding president of the International Council of Infant Food Industries.

For nine years after retiring from Wyeth in 1990, he taught graduate courses in global enterprise and international economics at the University of Pennsylvania and Ursinus College.

Mr. Bauer was all-England table tennis champion in 1944, and later was a figure skater, equestrian, downhill skier, and tennis player.

He and his wife, Nancy, subscribed to the Philadelphia Orchestra for 40 years and were regulars at Metropolitan Opera performances. He also loved the music of Cole Porter, she said.

In addition to his wife of 55 years, Mr. Bauer is survived by two sons, Evan and David, and a granddaughter.

A memorial concert will be held at 7:30 p.m. Dec. 20 at the Hill at Whitemarsh, 4000 Fox Hound Dr., Lafayette Hill.