<p align="left"> Raymond C. Staley was born on December 13, 1888, in Carrollton, Missouri.   He was the son of Michael R. and Delitha (Coffey) Staley.   Raymond Staley graduated from the University of Colorado with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1916.   Following graduation, he was employed as a teacher at Eagle County High School in Gypsum, Colorado, until 1918.   He was named principal in 1919, serving until 1925.   Later that year, he became a math instructor at Kansas State College, Manhattan, Kansas.   He graduated with a Master's degree from the University of Colorado in 1926.   He left his position in Kansas to become an Assistant Professor in Mathematics at the University of North Dakota in 1927.

Staley was promoted to Associate Professor in 1935.   He added a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1938.   His dissertation was entitled "Contributions to the Study of Non-Normal Difference Equations of the Second Order."   In 1939, he was promoted to full Professor and named head of the Math Department.   He was an active member of Phi Beta Kappa, the American Mathematical Society, Sigma Xi, the Mathematical Association of America, and the North Dakota Academy of Science.   He retired from UND in 1959.

Raymond Staley married Leah Tracy of Gypsum, Colorado, on September 7, 1919.   The couple had one son.   Raymond Staley died in Grand Forks on May 4, 1963.