George Frederick Baer

Lawyer and railroad executive, born near Lavansville, Pennsylvania, USA. He worked as a printer's apprentice for a local newspaper in Somerset Co, PA, then became the owner of the paper. He interrupted law studies to serve in the Civil War (1862–4), then served as legal counsel for the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad, and later was president of the organization that managed all the Reading holdings. An associate of the financier J P Morgan, he gained notoriety in 1902 when, taking a hard line on a United Mine Workers strike, he argued that propertied classes rather than labour unions were best fitted to look after workers' interests. He left a fortune of $15 million when he died.

George Frederick Baer (September 26, 1842 – April 26, 1914) was the US lawyer, was the CEO of Reading Company.

George Baer was born in Lavansville, Somerset County, Pennsylvania, and attended first Somerset Institute then Somerset Academy for a High School Education. At the age of thirteen, Baer dropped out of school and became a "printer's devil" at a local type shop. Baer briefly attended Franklin and Marshall College in 1860 and 1861 before enlisting in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Following the Civil War, Baer became a lawyer and served as the owner of "The Democrat," a local newspaper. Baer refused to put down the strike or speak to the strikers, citing social Darwinist ideals.

Baer was also named the president of Franklin and Marshall College in 1894 until he died in 1914.