Bahn, retired periodontist, remembered as compassionate, 'gentle spirit'

Dr. Taylor Bahn, a retired Cape Girardeau periodontist, is being remembered by family and friends this week following his death Monday at age 69.

"(Taylor) had a beautiful spirit, was compassionate to people and enthusiastic about whatever he did," said Bahn's widow, Nancy.

The couple, who married in 1982, met while Taylor was in dental school at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and she was serving as a speech therapist in the Kansas City School District.

"He was so shy," Nancy recalled, "(and) he was a very positive person and generous to me and to our three children."

One of Bahn's fellow students at UMKC, recently retired periodontist Daryl Beam of Hays, Kansas, said the two of them spent a great deal of time together during their dental studies from 1978 to 1982.

"We were in class together and were on the same clinical team," Beam said. "Taylor's word was his bond. He always had a smile on his face and he had a lot of Southern charm about him."

As a young man, Bahn played rugby in Kansas City and Memphis, Tennessee, filling the center and winger positions.

"Taylor broke a finger once playing (the sport) and on several other occasions, my wife and I patched him up after he'd been hurt in a match," Beam recalled.

"His death leaves a big hole in my heart," he added.

Bill Kane, a Dexter, Missouri, general dentist, went to Southeast Missouri State University and UMKC with Bahn.

"(Taylor) and I go back 51 years, back to the days when we were both young, skinny, had lots of hair and wore bell-bottom (trousers), and he was brilliant," said Kane, adding Bahn was terrific in the classroom and in the lab.

"(Taylor) actually understood chemistry and the rest of us mere mortals tolerated it," he said, adding Bahn "was at the top of his game academically at SEMO and at UMKC."

Kane said the pair were avid duck hunters, noting hunting with Bahn "was a wonderful way for us to solve world problems."

Kane was careful to note Bahn's skill as a dental specialist.

"He had great hands, a terrific manner with patients, a dry wit and a gentle spirit," Kane concluded.

Cliff Ford, formerly of Cape Girardeau and now living with his family in Ridgeland, Mississippi, remembered Bahn's devotion to attending Bible studies as far back as the 1980s, including one Ford formerly led in Cape Girardeau.

"(Taylor) was a true Christian in the way he treated people, was soft-spoken, very faithful to our group and made a solid contribution," said Ford, adding Bahn "never rejoiced in the troubles or sufferings of others."

Mark Kinder of Cape Girardeau, who carpooled to Bible study with Bahn for two years, called his friend a "humble man," adding he will not soon forget something Bahn organized among the Boy Scouts, an organization to which the late periodontist, an Eagle Scout, committed many years of his life.

"My father died in a traffic accident in Georgia in the year 2000," Kinder said, "and (Bahn) and the scouts of Troop 3 were lined up to salute my dad as his hearse made its way into Cape County Memorial Park Cemetery."

Former Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder joined his brother in appreciating Bahn.

"If (Taylor) was your friend, he was your friend for life," he said.

Bahn's brother, Willie, now living in Santa Fe, New Mexico, recalled a canoe trip the two of them took with two friends along the Current River in 1967.

"Taylor was 16 at the time and we went down the Current from Montauk to Big Springs, seven days on the river, and this was before there were cellphones -- just four boys in two canoes," he remembered.

"My brother was generally even-tempered, always willing to help and I looked up to him," the younger Bahn said.

U.S. District Court Senior Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr. had fond words for the 1969 Cape Girardeau Central High graduate.

"We called him 'T. Bahn,'" the venerable jurist recalled, adding Bahn had a well-earned reputation as a teenaged cellist.

"Every day, Taylor would lug his big cello onto the school bus, sometimes to the mild ridicule of those who had no appreciation for his talent," Limbaugh said.

"Taylor died too young, as did his best friend and classmate Dr. David Crowe. The two were so close that Crowe gave his oldest son Taylor's name," he remembered.

Reared in the Presbyterian Church, Bahn later became a member of Cape Girardeau's LaCroix Church and was active in Bible studies at Centenary United Methodist Church, also in Cape Girardeau.

Bahn is survived by his wife of nearly 39 years, Nancy, a brother, three children and two grandchildren.