It is with great sadness, we announce the passing of Dr. Raymond F. Wylie (Ray) beloved spouse, father, grandfather, uncle, and friend, on December 20, 2025. His warmth, intellect, humor, and generosity of spirit will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved him.
He is survived by his wife, Susan (nee Clark), brother Peter, daughters Sheelagh Wylie and Teresa Prentiss, granddaughters Rhiannon Prentiss and Sinead Prentiss Pope and grandson Rhys Wylie. He is predeceased by his parents, William and Frances Wylie and his brothers Brian and Billy and sister Rosemary.
Ray was born on May 14, 1941, in Lisburn, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, during the Belfast Blitz of World War II. As German bombing raids intensified, his mother and older brother were sent to stay with family in the Irish countryside for safety. Those early experiences shaped a lifelong resilience and curiosity about the wider world.
In 1948, Ray emigrated to Canada with his parents, his older brother Brian, and his younger sister Rosemary. The family took the Belfast boat to Heysham and then sailed on the tramp steamer SS Lord Glentoran, which left Barry Docks, South Wales to New York (Hoboken). The ship was diverted from Belfast at the last minute, so they could pick up a cargo of china clay. The ship was also carrying 500 Austin A40 automobiles for export to America. The only passengers other than crew were Ray, his parents, brother Brian and sister Rosemary. From there, the family traveled north to Montreal and eventually west, spending time in Kelowna and Vancouver, British Columbia and Winnipeg, Manitoba before settling in Kenora, Ontario, on Lake of the Woods.
Ray embraced Canadian life fully. He became an avid hockey player, worked part-time on the TransCanada Pipeline, and developed the work ethic and adaptability that would define his life. After high school, he earned a B.A. (Honours) in Modern History from the University of Toronto. During his first year at university, he served in the Canadian Army from September 1960 to May 1961, receiving an honorable discharge as an officer cadet.
In the summer of 1961, Ray served as a youth worker with the Canadian Voluntary Commonwealth Service in Kingston, Jamaica. He later became National President of the Canadian University Drama League from 1962 to 1963—an early reflection of his love for the arts.
During their time as students at the University of Toronto, Ray met his wife Susan (Sue), at Bigwin Inn a beautiful summer resort in the Muskoka Region of Northern Ontario, Canada in July 1964. They married later in 1964 in Rothley, Leicestershire, England, where Ray’s parents had relocated from Kenora. Ray and Sue shared more than 61 years together, building a life rooted in companionship, intellectual curiosity, humor, and deep affection. Sue mourns the loss of not only her husband, but her best friend, companion, and constant presence throughout a lifetime of shared adventures.
From 1964 to 1965, Ray studied Intensive Chinese at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London.
Shortly after the birth of their daughter Sheelagh in June 1965, Ray and Sue moved to Shanghai, China, where Ray worked as a lecturer in English at the Shanghai Institute of Foreign Languages. They returned to Canada in 1967, shortly before the birth of their second daughter, Teresa in Toronto. Ray completed his M.A. in Modern History at the University of Toronto in 1968.
After brief stints in corporate roles, including as a management trainee with Esso Oil, Ray made the decisive choice to return to academia. He moved his family back to London, where he pursued doctoral studies at the University of London, eventually earning a Ph.D. in Politics with a specialization in modern China.During this period, he also served as a councilman from Barnsbury in the London Borough of Islington from 1971 to 1973.
At a time when academic positions were scarce for specialists in modern Chinese politics, opportunity led Ray and his family to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in 1973. There, he joined Lehigh University as an assistant professor of international relations where he would teach for over 35 years. He went on to become a full professor and Chairman of the International Relations Department and Director of the Asia Studies Center. He also served as Chair of the Modern China Seminar at Columbia University.
From December 1979 through the summer of 1980, Ray took a sabbatical in Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland, bringing Sue and their daughters with him. They lived with his parents, who had returned to Northern Ireland, and this period sparked a lifelong love of the country for his children even though this was during the height of The Troubles.
After returning to Bethlehem, the family later moved to Rutherford, New Jersey—a relocation that his daughters famously greeted with horror at the prospect of acquiring a “Jersey accent.” While his daughters were in college, Ray took a two-year leave of absence to teach Asian Studies at the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Center at the University of Montana in Missoula. In the summer of 1986, his daughters joined their parents in Missoula after spending a year studying in Salamanca, Spain—an arrangement that, true to form, Ray did not present as optional. Through example and expectation, he instilled in his family a deep love of travel, learning, and other cultures.
Ray and Sue eventually returned to Bethlehem before settling in Weehawken, New Jersey, near daughter Sheelagh and grandson Rhys. In later years, Ray split his time between Weehawken and Dunedin, Florida.
In 2000, after 27 years in the U.S., Ray became a Naturalized U.S. Citizen.
Ray was often the smartest and most interesting person in any room, yet never made others feel small. He was charming, thoughtful, and kind, and could connect easily with people from all walks of life. He was especially at home talking with the regulars at the local pub—wherever that happened to be—and he passed this gift for easy conversation and curiosity on to his children and grandchildren.
A lifelong collector, Ray had a talent for becoming an expert in whatever caught his interest. Over the years, he collected furniture in styles ranging from Art Deco to Mission and Mid-Century Modern, as well as rare Chinese artifacts. His enduring passion, however, was miniature trains—particularly British models—which he lovingly collected and restored, sharing that passion with his grandson Rhys along with his deep interest in politics and history. Most recently, Ray turned his attention to collecting model boats.
His PhD “The Emergence of Maoism: Mao Tse-Tung, Ch’en Po-Ta, and the Search for Chinese Theory, 1935-1945”
was published by the Stanford University Press in 1980 and is available at Amazon.com, a testament to its relevance and ongoing interest in modern Chinese politics.
Growing up with Dad, you knew there was no TV on Sunday mornings. He would settle in with his coffee, read the New York Times and listen to Classical and Irish music, with some opera thrown in.
Ray will be greatly missed by his family and by all who had the pleasure of knowing him. His legacy lives on in the curiosity he inspired, the conversations he sparked, and the love of learning and the wider world that he passed on to generations.
Ray had the kind of life that makes the rest of us reconsider our hobbies.
If the story of Ray’s life sounds exaggerated, it’s only because the truth was that impressive.
Please join us for a celebration of Raymond’s life and visitation from 2-5 p.m. at Failla-McKnight Funeral Home in Hoboken on Saturday, December 27th. We will have a remembrance at 3:30pm with an “Irish Gathering/Wake” immediately after for an hour nearby to have a beer and toast to a great man.
Donations may be made in lieu of flowers to The Emerald Isle Immigration Center:
