Bailey, Richard W.

Richard Weld Bailey (October 26, 1939 – April 2, 2011) was an American linguist, scholar of the English language, and the Fred Newton Scott Collegiate Professor of English at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Bailey was born in Pontiac, Michigan to Karl and Elisabeth (Weld) Bailey. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1961, having also studied for a year at the University of Edinburgh. He received his MA and Ph.D in English from the University of Connecticut in 1965. He died in 2011 at his home in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Bailey was the author or editor of over 20 books, most treating aspects of English language history (in the U.S. and elsewhere) and linguistics. He also authored over one hundred articles, both scholarly and popular and nearly that many reviews of scholarly works. From 2003 to his death, he wrote a regular column titled "Talking About Words" for the University of Michigan publication Michigan Today. With Colette Moore and Marilyn Miller, Bailey published A London Provisioner's Chronicle 1550-1563 by Henry Machyn, an on-line edition of a recounting of daily life in sixteenth century London. Through his teaching and mentorship, he played an important part in advancing scholarship in the realm of language and linguistics, including chairing or serving on dozens of dissertation committees. In addition to his research and teaching at the University of Michigan, Bailey was involved for over 30 years in the governance and significant growth of the Washtenaw Community College: Elected Trustee (1974–present) Treasurer (1977–79), Secretary (1979–81) Vice-Chair (1981–85), and Board Chair (1985–94, 1999–2000) He was named an honorary faculty member in 2002 and in 2005, and his service to WCC was honored when the Richard W. Bailey Library was named for him. In 2008, Bailey co-authored an amicus brief with colleagues Dennis Baron and Jeffrey Kaplan, for the District of Columbia v. Heller Supreme Court case, providing an interpretation of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution based on the grammars, dictionaries, and general usage common in the founders' day, and showing that those meanings are still common today.