The Rev. Robert C. Baumiller, 75, spent his life helping others as a priest, a medical researcher and a teacher. He died unexpectedly Thursday at Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati from a pulmonary embolism following heart surgery.
The son of Margaret S. and Bernard J. Baumiller, he was born in Baltimore on April 15, 1931, and grew up on Chesapeake Avenue in Towson. He graduated from Loyola Blakefield high school in 1949 and went on to graduate from Loyola College in 1953.
The Rev. Baumiller entered the Society of Jesus at the Novitiate of St. Isaac Jogues in Wernersville, Pa., in 1953 and was a Jesuit priest for 41 years.
“He was a religious man but he never wore his religion on his sleeve or went around preaching,” said his sister Harriet Perrelli, 64, of Towson.
After getting his doctorate in biology in 1961 from St. Louis College in Missouri, he earned renowned respect for his work in genetics and bioethics, Perrelli said.
He continued his theological studies at Maryland?s Woodstock College and was ordained by Cardinal Lawrence Sheehan, archbishop of Baltimore, in June 1965.
The Rev. Baumiller taught obstetrics and gynecology in the Georgetown University Medical School and returned to teach biology and pediatrics until 1991.
At the time of his death, the Rev. Baumiller was associate dean of health programs and professor of biology and philosophy at Xavier University in Cincinnati.
The Rev. Baumiller?s secretary, Nancy McDonald, said in a written statement that he will be remembered as nonjudgmental and quick-witted with a dry sense of humor.
“The more you got to know him, the more you liked him,” she said.
“He was famous but we were the last to know this. Always quiet, private unassuming, never bragging,” Perrelli said of his humble nature.
The Rev. Baumiller was close to his family, never forgetting birthdays, baptizing his nieces and nephews and participating in all of their weddings.
Perrelli said he was known fondly as a “second father” and “an unobtrusive big brother” to his nieces and nephews.
He is survived by his two sisters, Harriet Perrelli and Dorothy Ann Flannery. His nieces and nephews include Frank, Tom, Ann, John and Rob Perrelli and Meg Cromwell, Jim Flannery Jr. and Jean Becker.
Service
» Services will be held this evening at the Loyola Blakefield chapel at 500 Chestnut Ave. in Towson. The viewing will begin at 5 p.m. followed by mass at 7:30 p.m. He will receive a Christian burial Saturday at 10:45 a.m. at Jesuit Cemetery in Woodstock.
