Wayne Ray

Who is Wayne Ray?

Wayne Scott Ray is a Canadian poet and photographer.

Ray is the founder of HMS Press publishing, Scarborough Arts Council Poetry Contest, co-founder of the Canadian Poetry Association and co-chairman of the League of Canadian Poets: Associates for 1985–1986. He worked at the time for the University of Toronto as Head Gardener and Grounds Foreman at the U of T Presidents Estate 1980 after working as an estate gardener for E.P. Taylor 1974–1978. He was instrumental in helping establish the London Arts Council and was the Literary Committee Chair and past president of the New London Arts Festival for 1995.

Ray has several books of poetry and non-fiction published as well as credits in anthologies, periodicals, journals and newspapers across Canada between 1983 and 2008. Ray grew up on the Ernest Harmon Air Force Base in Stephenville, Newfoundland and Labrador from 1953 to 1965, and was in Boy Scout Troop 6 there. After moving to Woodstock, Ontario in 1965, he and his brother Cris became Lone Scouts and in 1965 Troop 6 Ernest Harmon Air Force Base and 1968 Ray received his Eagle Scout and Queen's Scout awards while attending Troop 11 in Woodstock. He became a Canadian citizen in 1977 prior to working as an OPP Ontario Provincial Police Officer out of Toronto's Downsview Detachment from 1978–1980.