Bob Hauer is shown in his lab at Columbia Memorial Hospital.

Bob Hauer said his journey to become a clinical lab scientist started with his mother.

“My mom worked as a nurses‘ aide at Columbia Memorial Hospital when I was little,” he said.

Hauer remembers his mom coming home late as she worked the graveyard shift. She wanted him to become a doctor, but he said he wasn’t interested since there was a lot of schooling involved.

“When I was in high school I narrowed down my options to pharmacy or lab technician,” he said. “Since I always found the tools and equipment that lab scientists use interesting, I decided to pursue a career in that field.”

Before he went to college, Hauer spent time working at his father’s bicycle store, Hauer’s Cyclery and Locksmith.

“I worked as the main mechanic until I was 16 years old,” he said. “After he sold it, I knew I had to find a real job.”

Hauer traveled south to Klamath Falls, where he attended the Oregon Institute of Technology for three years. He spent his final year as an intern at Tampa General Hospital in Tampa, Florida. He said students at Oregon Tech had to find an internship for their final year of college, so he and his wife, Judy, packed everything into an RV and made the cross-country trip.

After finishing up his internship, Hauer was offered a job at Tampa General. But as fate would have it, Florida was not the place he would spend his career.

“I was born and raised in Astoria,” he said. “After finishing my year program in Florida I was offered a job, but told them I was going to return home to attend my friend’s wedding, then come back to start working. But upon arriving back in Astoria, I met Floyd Coons, who ended up offering me a job.”

Coons managed the clinical lab at Columbia Memorial.

Since he grew up in Astoria, Hauer knew how good the area was for raising children and the amount of opportunities that were available, from the beach to boating.

Hauer started working as a clinical lab scientist for Columbia Memorial in October 1974. He recently retired after 50 years at the hospital.

When asked to reflect on his time at Columbia Memorial, Hauer said he experienced many changes.

“When I first started working there it was just us technologists,” he said. “Now we have full-time lab assistants who do much of the work. Also, most things are done by machines now.”

Hauer considers himself old school, so he enjoyed doing things by hand. This led him to move into the microbiology department, since it was more hands-on.

Hauer said he felt satisfaction knowing he was contributing to someone getting better and leaving the hospital.

“It’s such a great system,” he said. “We all worked together to make sure patients left the hospital healthy. There were times I wasn’t sure on how to do something and a person from a different department would come help. Seeing how each department works is something you don’t normally get to experience in bigger hospitals.”

Now that he’s retired, Hauer said he enjoys motorcycle trips, skiing, boat trips and hanging out with his three children and two grandchildren.

His daughter, Tricia, lives and works in town, while his brother, Ed, owns and operates Hauer’s Lawn Care and Equipment with his son.