Four best friends since first and second grade came together Friday night in sadness but are remembering the happy times from a decades long friendship with Chicago police Cmdr. Paul Bauer.
A somber procession rolled on as the hearse carrying Bauer pulled up to Nativity of Our Lord church in Bridgeport. His casket was formally carried in by a police honor guard. A riderless horse cantered with his mounted unit in his honor.
His four best friends are among hundreds paying their respects.
"Whether you met him for five minutes or knew him for five years or 45 years, you just had a lasting impression," said retired First Deputy Supt. John Escalante. "And it was all always positive."
Escalante and Bauer were friends since first grade.
"We had a typical childhood, lotta laughs," he said.
Officer James Fernandez was also a long time friend of Bauer's.
Local
"He always did right," Fernandez said. "A very good kid growing up and I knew he had a very bright future--it’s not surprising that he became commander of this department."
At Bauer's wedding, his best man, Dan Kiehn, and and best buddies were by his side.
"He was always that kid you could go to," Kiehn recalled. I relied on him as a best friend, but that guy I could go to to get that solid advice."
Steve Matteo was another life-long friend of Bauer's.
"What a nice guy--he’s a saint--he kinda was," he said. "If you look up clean nose in dictionary. There’s a picture of Paul in there."
Three of the friends all went to college together.
"Danny and I and Paul started at Norther Illinois University," Escalante remembered and then laughed. "The three of us went to Northern but Paul’s the only one that stayed on track and actually graduated."
"Danny and I didn’t do so well--but I was thinking about that too," he said. "But that’s when Paul kinda took on the qualities that defined him as an adult. Just being responsible, focused. Making the right decisions, for the right reasons. That was Paul in college."
On a whim, Escalante and Bauer took their police exams in 1985 and were hired the next summer.
"Growing up we never once talked about being police, especially making it a career," Escalante said. "We both fell into it and loved it and eventually had a lot of success in it."
Kiehn echoed Escalante's appraisal of Bauer's career.
"Paul, no matter what position he was in, he always rose to the occasion he always became that guy," he said. "Never got complacent."
As much as he loved work, it was his wife and daughter that Bauer loved most.
"Erin and Gracie were his world," Kiehn said.
To the end, Bauer was a dedicated policeman, his friends said.
"We’re just gonna miss him," Fernandez said.
Escalante said his fallen friend will always be remembered as simply "amazing."
"You could have a brief interaction with him and he left a lasting impression," he said.
