Frank Baillie 1947–2023

Frank became involved with AIMS in 1990 and served as publisher to the Association under AIMS Presidents Bob Dalgleish, Hiroaki Chosa and Paco Borao.

Frank combined two of his greatest loves, running and publishing, when he became the publisher of Distance Running magazine. The magazine covered over 400 of the world’s major city races, spanning more than 120 countries and territories. Frank transformed the publication from a small black and white print magazine to full colour and on to become the world’s most widely distributed sports magazine.

Frank was a keen runner with a personal best of 2:45. He competed in numerous marathons including Glasgow and London. He also published magazines for both events in the 1980s. Frank originated the AIMS Marathon Medal and T-shirt awards now staged at each AIMS Congress.

Frank was one day watching the BBC Television programme ‘The Antiques Roadshow’ when he spotted a rare physical relic of the 1908 London Olympic Marathon, the race that defined the Marathon distance as 26 miles 385 yards (42195m). The 18-mile marker, a cast-iron fingerpost sign, surfaced from obscurity at a car boot sale in the north of England several years ago. The buyer, Graham Webster, knew what he had acquired and took it for valuation on the BBC programme where he expressed the feeling that the sign really belonged in a museum.

On behalf of AIMS Frank Baillie approached Webster who agreed to sell the sign. This was at a time when the covid pandemic made travel problematic. Even in 2022, with restrictions lifted, the sign needed especially carefully couriered transportation due to the brittleness of the cast iron. Frank drove halfway across Europe to ensure the safe delivery of the sign to Berlin Marathon founder Horst Milde. The historic item now resides in the AIMS Marathon Museum of Running, later renamed the ‘Marathoneum’, in the Berlin Sports Museum, Germany. All thanks to Frank’s ingenuity, persistence and generosity.

Frank was one of the biggest and most wonderful characters you could ever hope to meet. He lit up every room he entered with his interest and genuine empathy for others, combined with his kindness, wit and charm. Informed by his forever searching, enquiring mind to learn more about the world that he used to help everyone he encountered on his path. He travelled the world to over 100 countries.

Frank was rightly proud of where he was from and where he reached in life. His dad Frank Senior was a van driver and his mum Mary a waitress. The family lived in Govan, the port area of their home Scottish city of Glasgow. Frank often talked about growing up in an old tenement building in Govan where he shared a bed sleeping head-to-toe with his three brothers and three sisters.

Frank loved flying and joined the air training corps in 1960 until 1965. He won a scholarship to become a pilot and then served in the RAF (Royal Air Force) as a Commanding Officer. He later became a commercial pilot. Captain Baillie was known and loved by everyone in Glasgow Airport, the waitresses, the cleaners, the crew and other pilots. When Frank retired as a pilot it had been 50 years since he first walked into Glasgow Airport as a young cadet.

From 1970 to 74, Frank joined Scottish & Universal Newspapers (SUITS) where he became the Personnel and Training Manager of Scotland’s most respected broadsheet newspaper The Herald. 1974-80. He became a Director of Scottish & Universal Newspapers which included one daily paper, 26 weekly papers and a number of sports magazines. Frank oversaw 200 staff. He gave many famous journalists their first job in the media.

From 1982-87 Frank was managing editor of famous publishers the Holmes McDougall Group, which he would later buy in a management buyout (MBO) from parent company Lonrho plc for 650,000 pounds, becoming owner and MD from 1987–93 where over 5 years he would successfully sell various parts of the company for 8.3 million pounds.

Frank loved to travel, loved skiing, and had an unquenchable thirst for history and learning. He was proud of studying for an MBA at Harvard University. Frank served as a non-executive director on many of Scotland’s hospital boards and was commended for his work in organising the celebration of the 50th year of the National Health Service in Scotland.

One of the first things Frank did when he achieved the ‘MBO’ was to pay for a hospitality table at Ibrox, home of Rangers Football Club, the club his dad had grown up supporting. The family home had been literally in the shadow of the stadium. Frank senior would take his old pals from the docks to dine in style at each home match and was so proud of what his son had achieved.

There is a saying: ‘People will forget what you have done, forget what you have said. But they will never forget the way you made them feel.’ This is why Frank will live on in all the hearts of those who met him.

Rest in peace, our dear friend and a great servant to the running world and AIMS in particular.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STshsn4XVEU