Frank Baird (1870-1951) was a Presbyterian minister and author of several books, including Roger Davis, Loyalist, Rob MacNab: Stories of Old Pictou, and Parson John of the Labrador. Born in New Brunswick, he was ordained in 1901 and held pastorates in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland, although much of his life was spent in Pictou, Nova Scotia.
Constance McGrath Baird was a student of Mount Saint Vincent Academy in the late 1920's. She went on to teach at St. Patrick's Boys' School in 1930.
Elsie Muriel (Mosher) Bailly (1911-2000), school teacher for 19 years then a housewife and mother, was born November 16, 1911 to John Mosher and Waitie (Smith) Mosher in North Brookfield Mines, Queens County, Nova Scotia (NS). She started teaching school in the rural community of East Jordan, in the Municipality of Shelburne, NS in 1930, with a temporary teacher’s license from the Nova Scotia Teachers’ College (also known as Provincial Normal College) in Truro, NS. Over the next 3 years, she earned her “B” class teacher’s license via correspondence courses from the College, while continuing to earn a living teaching. She taught grades 1 to 5 in several rural, one-room schools in southwest Nova Scotia, including First South (1931-32), West Dublin (1932-33), Maders Cove (1933-34 to 1935-36), Sable River (1936-37 to 1937-38), Tusket (1938-39 to 1939-40), Pentz (1940-41), and Riverport (1941-42). In 1941 she received her “A” class license and was hired by the Town of Mahone Bay, NS where she taught from 1942 to the end of March 1949 when she resigned her post. In ca.1947 she married Donald Bailly (ca.1914-2007) of Lunenburg, NS and had 2 children: Suzanne and Ronald. She died in 2000, in Lunenburg.
Jacob Bailey was born 16 April 1731 at Rowley, Mass., the second child of David Bailey and Mary Hodgkins. He received his AB from Harvard in 1755, taught school for a few years, then returned to Harvard to obtain his AM. Bailey converted to the Church of England in 1759 and was ordained a clergyman in London on 16 March 1760. Upon his return to America, he was appointed to the parish at Pownalborough, Mass. In 1761 Bailey married Sally Weeks and they had six children. The American Revolution prompted Bailey and his family to move to Nova Scotia in June 1779. He was assigned to the parish of Cornwallis in October 1779 where he remained until his appointment as rector to the parish at Annapolis Royal in 1782. The latter parish covered the areas of Granville, Clements and Digby. Bailey was also known for his literary works. He wrote anti-rebel and religious satires, including America and Jack Ramble, the Methodist Preacher, along with several (incomplete) novels and plays. Bailey also wrote prose on theology, morality, and American history. He died at Annapolis Royal on 26 July 1808 at age 77.
Chris Bailey is an alumnus of Dalhousie University. He studied with Gregory Kealey and authored an essay on the history of the Nova Scotia Government Employees Union (NSGEU) that Kealey eventually donated to the Dalhousie University Archives.
Boris Babkin was a professor of physiology at Dalhousie University from 1924-1928. Born in Kursk, Russia, in 1877, he studied under Ivan P. Pavlov in his laboratory at the Institute of Experimental Medicine until 1912. He taught animal physiology at the Agricultural Institute of Novo Alexandria, and in 1915 he was appointed professor of physiology at the University of Odessa. In 1922 he left Russia due to political reasons and came to Halifax via London, England. He remained at Dalhousie until 1928, when he accepted a position at McGill University, where he served as department chair (1940-1941) and research fellow in physiology (1942-1947). The year before his death in 1950, he was awarded the Julius Friedenwal Medal by the American Gastroenterological Association.
Reginald "Reg" Stephen Babcock was born in 1892 in Sidmouth, Devonshire, England. In 1910, he immigrated to Canada. He lived in Montreal and worked as a waiter aboard the CN railway until the outbreak of the First World War. He joined the Royal Montreal Rifles and was wounded in action overseas. He was recuperating in a Halifax hospital at the time of the Halifax Explosion in 1917. After the war, he moved to the United States, where he was engaged as a golf pro at courses in Philadelphia and Massachusetts. While in Boston, he met his wife, Jennie May McConnell from Torbrook, Annapolis County. He spent the 1920s moving between his work at the United States golf courses and his wife's family homestead, where they operated a fox farm. Between 1932 and 1934 he was engaged as golf pro at the newly-opened Digby Pines resort. Around 1935, he moved to Halifax where he was golf pro at the Gorsebrook Golf Club until 1944. He was owner of Babcock's tearoom in Halifax from 1945 to 1950, when he moved to Wolfville and operated Babcock's restaurant until his retirement to Kingston in 1973. He served as Chairman of the Greens Committee at Ashburn Golf Club (1945-1950); and during the 1950s he was Chairman of the Greens Committee for Ken-Wo Golf Club. Babcock began taking home movies in the 1920s and his films reflect his interests and family life. By the 1950s, however, he was becoming more involved with still photography and more specifically slides. By the 1960s he had stopped film making and was doing 35mm still photography only. Reginald Babcock died in Berwick, Nova Scotia on 9 August 1978.
Aza Avramovitch was born in Belgrade on 27 March 1921. He was educated at Belgrade University and the School of Architecture, University of Geneva, from which he received a diploma in 1951. From 1941 to 1943 he was interned in a concentration camp in Italy; he later escaped to Switzerland but lost the rest of his family in the Holocaust. From the late 1940s to 1953 he was an architect in Geneva and France before emigrating to Canada with his first wife, Margot Machler. He practiced architecture in Montreal until 1959, when he moved to Halifax. After working briefly with Keith Graham and Associates, in 1960 he established his own practice, Aza Avramovitch Associates Ltd. (later Aza Avramovitch Architect Ltd.) For a number of years he had his office in the historic Century House at 1714 Robie St., Halifax, which he fully restored. He retired in 1994. Among his projects were the Northwood Centre (Halifax), Church of Christ ( Fairview), the Nova Scotia Home for Coloured Children (Dartmouth), Dartmouth Academy, Shubenacadie Post Office, and several apartment buildings. He also assisted in the planning of several large-scale development projects such as the Pinecrest Housing Project (Bridgewater) and Tantallon Woods Subdivision. In addition to his career as an architect, he was an amateur artist and poet. In 1995 he published Poems of Dreams and Smiles, a book whose theme was life and loss. In 1998 he married his second wife, Francene Cosman. He died on 26 May 1999.