Estrella WarBirds Museum

Vice President

Margi Marsh Bauer was born in Dayton, Ohio in 1950. She grew up in Columbus and attended the University of Cincinnati. Her father served as a civilian engineer at Wright Patterson Air Force Base during WWII and, having three daughters and no sons, he taught the girls everything mechanical. Her mother, a registered nurse, could fix almost anything. Both parents came from rural Indiana, and the farm where her father was raised has been in the family since 1835.

Growing up in near the Columbus Airport and Rickenbacker Air Force Base - then known as Lockbourne AFB, the sounds of planes and jets always caught her fancy. With no mountains nor oceans in central Ohio, family fun was to drive over to the airport to watch air traffic.

In her working careers, Margi has worked as a retail manager, dental assistant, executive secretary, personnel counselor, radio promotions director, and has marketed industrial inkjets and copper weathervanes.

Margi met her husband, Harald Bauer, on a working assignment in Columbus in 1980. They married in 1985 and have lived in Columbus, Connecticut, London-England, and now Atascadero, as they followed Harald’s news services career. They enjoy Harald’s three sons and three grandchildren.

Harald surprised Margi one Christmas with a gift certificate for flight school where she logged 82 hours, including her solo cross-country. She has also logged a co-pilot flight in a B-17. Her flight school in Danbury, CT was adjacent to New York air space, which curtailed her training after the 9/11 attack. When they moved to the Central Coast, they came to visit our museum the minute they heard the word “warbirds”! Both love volunteering here and appreciate the many friendships they have made in the group.

Margi’s favorite things are photography, music, art, and flight.