Robert Baumann, soccer coach, attorney from Rockville Centre, dies at 82

The Newsday article was about Robert "Bob" Baumann’s daughters, but it may as well have been about him.

 "Life’s a Kick for Baumanns" ran the headline on Nov. 7, 1989, for a story about the soccer-star dynasty of Baumann’s four girls at South Side High School in Rockville Centre.

"He was their coach. He taught them the game," said Garden City resident Jim Falk, of Baumann, a lifelong friend.

Baumann, himself a standout college athlete, died of cardiopulmonary failure Oct. 14 at his home in Rockville Centre. He was 82.

Stacey Aicher of Rockville Centre, his eldest daughter, who went on to play varsity soccer at the University of Cambridge in Britain, said of her father: "He first coached me when I was in fifth grade. He was very supportive of women's sports throughout his whole career in coaching" as a volunteer for the Rockville Centre Soccer Club, the Long Island Junior Soccer League and the Eastern New York State Youth Soccer Association.

In the Newsday article, he said he and his wife, Mary Jane, had seen their daughters play "at least 1,000 games."

Susan Mihok, of Timonium, Maryland, and the youngest of the couple's four daughters, said when she and her sister Jennifer played soccer for William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, their parents "would drive down, watch the game, take a 20-minute nap and drive back to New York."

Said Falk of his friend: "That was Bob Baumann. He was always there for everybody — his friends, his family, his clients."

An attorney for 55 years, Baumann never officially retired, said Mihok, herself a lawyer.

"He was in the process of winding down his active cases" during his final seven months, when his heart issues became acute, she said.

Mihok is helping Baumann's office administrator transition pending cases to other attorneys, some court actions more difficult than others.

"He had a guardianship for over 35 years," she said. "That was the hardest client to release."

Robert Elmore Baumann was born Nov. 6, 1941, in Oceanside, the son of Robert Baumann and Rosalyn G. Rodesk Baumann. The eldest child and only son, he had three younger sisters. Their father owned a bus company and both parents owned and ran two summer camps.

The younger Baumann attended the Blair Academy boarding school in New Jersey, where he competed on the soccer and wrestling teams. He went on to become a lacrosse standout at Siena College in upstate Loudonville, taking over as player-coach his senior year when the regular coach became ill. While in college he received a commission as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. Following graduation from Siena in 1964, Baumann continued as lacrosse coach at the college for a year while attending Albany Law School.

He transferred to Gonzaga University School of Law, in Spokane, Washington, where he earned his law degree in 1968. Admitted to the New York State Bar the following year, Baumann worked briefly in the Bronx, his family said, before opening his own a practice in Oceanside. He later had an office in Garden City and finally in Freeport.

In the 1970s, Baumann served as a committee chair and an officer of the Oceanside Narcotics Council, later the Oceanside Counseling Center, and held offices including lay president of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Rockville Centre. He was a member of the Kiwanis civic organization and of the Rockville Links Club.

Baumann was married to Mary Jane Rockefeller Baumann for more than 60 years.

Along with his wife, Aicher and Mihok, Baumann is survived by daughter Jaimee Reis of Rockville Centre and daughter Jennifer McGovern, of Kings Park and 12 grandchildren.

Baumann was cremated. On Nov. 30, following a private family service, an open-house celebration of his life will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Kasey’s Kitchen and Cocktails, 23 North Park Avenue, Rockville Centre. Friends and families are asked to take a moment at sunset on Nov. 6 to remember Baumann on what would have been his 83rd birthday.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Siena College Saints Alive! Athletic Fund or the We Care Fund of the Nassau County Bar Association.