Norwich University

Dr. Wallace E. "Maj" Baines becomes the fourth honorary member of the NU Athletic Hall of Fame. A 1951 graduate of Suffolk University, he earned his MA at Arizona State in 1962. He was a public school teacher in Arizona, New Hampshire, New York, and Massachusetts from 1951 to 1959 before accepting a teaching fellowship at Boston University. Dr Baines' major areas of study included Health, Physical Education and Recreation, and Guidance and Counseling.
Wally served in the U.S. Coast Guard from 1945 to 1947, seeing duty in the Pacific on various cutters. He resumed his education thereafter and arrived at Norwich in 1960. At Norwich, Wally Baines has been an innovator and leader in the classroom and on the playing fields, and as a pivotal member of numerous bodies who have shaped and guided the academic destiny of Norwich University. Peerless as a teacher and advisor, he has ben a beacon to generations of graduate and undergraduate students, who have been nurtured by his patient and kind manner and stimulated by his scholarship. Prof. Baines refined the undergraduate curriculum in Health, Physical Education, and Recreation and founded the graduate program in Athletic Administration. He currently serves as Chairman of HPER and Head of the Division of Education.
Wally Baines' creativity and success extend to the playing fields, where Coach Baines established NU programs in lacrosse and cross country. As head lacrosse coach, he amassed an 18-year mark of 95-74 after starting the program in 1969. He carried an 88-27 record into this, his final year as cross country mentor. He began the program in 1974 and has never had a losing season. Wally and his wife, Genevieve, who reside in Northfield, are the parents of four daughters: Jan, Laurie, Cathie, and Judith. The Norwich firmament will lose one of its brightest stars when Dr. Baines retires next spring.