Raymond Joslin Baillie played nine seasons as an offensive and defensive lineman in the CFL with four teams. He was born in Montreal on Valentine’s Day in 1935 to Donald Baillie, a real estate man of Scottish background, and the former Mary Bishop, who was of Irish-French heritage.Lorne Burkell
As a high school teacher, Ray Baillie never raised his voice. He didn't have to. The combination of being a burly bear of a man with a strong resemblance to Paul Bunyan, and a reputation as a professional football bruiser was enough to quieten a class, especially the boys.
A respected and much-loved history teacher at a suburban Montreal high school for some 30 years, Mr. Baillie parlayed his decade of professional football experience into coaching, successfully leading the Chomedey High School Chiefs to a city championship in 1971, and later, winning the Quebec university championship with McGill's Redmen.
Remembered as a stern but soft-spoken man who listened to his students and whom students wanted to please, he brought Canadian and world history to life, breaking classes up into "countries" and appointing dictators, or bluntly dismissing some figures in this country's history as "idiots."
Former students have filled online sites with condolences and memories of a quiet, steady presence whose influence extended years, sometimes decades beyond high school. "There is not one ex-student of his he did not have a profound effect on," one wrote.
Recalled another: "He would tell us boys to stop talking football in class, while he was fixing my helmet."
In retirement, Mr. Baillie honed his expertise on the English-speaking peoples of Quebec, authoring well-received books on the province's Anglo/Scottish influence.
He died in hospital on May 10 from injuries after falling in his house in Montreal. "He declined any extraordinary measures to keep him alive," his son Nick said. He was 80.
A six-foot, 270-pound offensive and defensive lineman, he played nine seasons (1954-1965) in the Canadian Football League with the Calgary Stampeders, Montreal Alouettes, Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Edmonton Eskimos.
Two of his three brothers were also athletes: His twin, Charles, played alongside Ray in Montreal, while Dave Baillie was a super heavyweight weightlifter who competed for Canada at three Olympic Games and won silver medals at two Commonwealth Games. He also became a teacher.
Very few saw the Baillie boys together in their prime but their collective bulk was said to be something to behold.
Charles and Ray would be reunited as coaches for the Redmen, Charles as head coach for a record 29 years, guiding the team to more victories than any football coach in McGill history, and Ray as defensive co-ordinator from 1972 to 1978. Their intersection included the 1973 season, when McGill won the Quebec championship and advanced to the Vanier Cup national final (where they lost to the Saint Mary's Huskies).
"Ray was a very thoughtful coach who taught his players much more than how to play football," former Redmen quarterback Vic Pywowarczuk told mcgillathletics.ca.
Gerry Dattilio, a former CFL quarterback who was part of the Grey Cup-winning Montreal team in 1977, played for Mr. Baillie at Chomedey High for two years – "the two greatest years of my life," he said, his voice cracking with emotion. "The greatest coaches in my life were [former Alouettes coach] Marv Levy and Coach Baillie, not necessarily in that order. He was a man of integrity and I enjoyed playing for him more than you can imagine," Mr. Dattilio said. "I'm going to miss him."
Raymond Joslin Baillie was born in Montreal on Valentine's Day in 1935 to Donald Baillie, a real estate man of Scottish background, and the former Mary Bishop, who was of Irish-French heritage. He played junior football for Montreal's NDG Maple Leafs and the Sarnia Imperials. He graduated with a B.A. from Sir George Williams College, a teacher's diploma from Macdonald College and a master's in history from McGill in 1966. He also studied Commonwealth law and Scottish history at Edinburgh University.
In addition to teaching high school history, he lectured part-time at McGill's faculty of education.
Frank Weinstein, who taught history at Chomedey High School alongside Mr. Baillie for 25 years, recalled a mentor who established a history resource centre at the school that encouraged research and the development of critical thinking skills.
"He affected students' lives but also teachers' lives, mine especially, because all my success is based on the skills he taught me. He was meticulous and organized, the ultimate pedagogue."
In retirement, Mr. Baillie and his wife, Diana, crisscrossed Quebec to co-author the three-volume series, Imprints: Discovering the Historic Face of English Quebec, which involved more than 150 excursions and photographing more than 700 historic houses, churches and other landmarks in the Outaouais, the Laurentians, the Richelieu Valley and the Eastern Townships.
"The object was to discover the influence of English speakers in the province and we thought it would be one book," Diana Baillie said. "It turned out to be three, there was so much material. We learned as we went."
The books were reviewed as "gently elegiac … an evocative remembrance of things past."
Feeling the Scots deserved their own book, Mr. Baillie followed up in 2010 with Scottish Imprints in Quebec, the result of six years of travel and research that produced more than 300 pictures and text chronicling the important role of the Scots and their descendants, particularly in 19th-century Quebec.
He is survived by his wife of 56 years, Diana; children, Patrick, Megan and Nick; and a brother, Charles.
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