Charles Theodore "Ted" Bauer, co-founder and former chairman of AIM Management Group, died of heart failure on Monday at Houston's Methodist Hospital. Bauer was 85.

Bauer got his start in the fund industry by working at American General Insurance Company in Houston, expanding AGI's mutual fund business.

Bauer's longstanding career with the fund firm he co-founded began in 1976, when he started the company with AGI alums Robert H. Graham and Gary T. Crum. At that time, the company had "a table, two chairs, and a telephone."

Under their leadership, AIM launched two funds by 1980. In 1986, AIM acquired the Weingarten, Constellation, and Charter funds, a lineup that would "form the core of AIM's product line," according to the company's website. AIM acquired CIGNA Funds in 1992, and by 1996 managed more than $60 billion in assets. AIM managed $148 billion in assets at the end of March.

Bauer chaired the funds' board until September 2000, and retired from AIM Management in January 2001. He continued to contribute to the AIM Foundation, the fund firm's charitable organization.

Although he passed away in Houston, Bauer's heart remained close to his roots in the East. Bauer, born on March 3, 1919 in Boston, maintained a home in Rockport, Massachusetts and continued to swim at “the greatest swimming hole in the world,” Rockport's Steel Derrick Quarry, according to a company press release.

Another one of Bauer's loves was contributing to education. Bauer, a graduate of Harvard College (1942) and New York University (1954), contributed $40 million to the University of Houston in 2001. The university's business school was renamed The Charles T. Bauer College of Business in 2001.

AIM has hired more than 400 graduates of the University of Houston, including Mike Cemo, AIM Distributors' president.

Bauer is survived by his wife, Ruth Brouse Bauer; and three children, Janet Bauer Hartman, Theodore Wingate and Charles Douglas Bauer. He is also survived by grandchildren Meredith Greenaway Hartman, Matthew Jameson Hartman and Charles Douglas Bauer II, according to the Houston Chronicle.

The Houston office of AIM will hold a memorial for Bauer on Wednesday at 10:30am. Co-founders Graham, Crum and Mark Williamson, AIM's current chief executive officer, will speak during the memorial. Other offices of the AIM will be able to watch the memorial via videoconferencing, said spokesman James Aber.

A family memorial for Bauer will be held on Wednesday, at 2pm in Houston, at the Jasek Chapel of Geo. H. Lewis & Sons, 1010 Bering.  

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