David Bailiff, 1962-2022

David Bailiff, the accomplished piper, teacher and organizer, passed away in Newark, Delaware, on September 20th after several years of health problems. He was 10 days short of his 60th birthday.

Born on October 2, 1962, he rose to be a successful competitor at the Open/Professional level, competing with success during the 1980s and ’90s on the Eastern United States Pipe Band Association and Pipers & Pipe Bands Society of Ontario circuits.

After his competing career, he stayed even more strongly involved in the piping and drumming scene as a sought-after judge and office-holder with the EUSPBA.

As the piping and drumming director of the Colonial Highland Gathering in Fair Hill, Maryland, Bailiff worked to organize the annual invitational Professional solo competitions, elevating the contest to be a world-class event, popular with accomplished pipers across North America.

He worked in corporate finance and compliance with major companies like J.P. Morgan and Nationwide, and he held a deep love of the Philadelphia Flyers of the NHL, the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens and, most of all, Major League Baseball’s Baltimore Orioles.

David Bailiff loved piping and drumming and the piping and drumming world returned that affection, and he will be universally missed and remembered well by all who knew him.

The funeral will be on September 26th at 11 am at the Calvary Missionary Baptist Church in Rising Sun, Maryland.

Contributions in his memory can be made to either the National Kidney Foundation or the David Bailiff Memorial Fund, an effort to continue his legacy in the piping community. Contributions to the latter are being received and coordinated by Crouch Funeral Home, 127 S. Main St., North East, MD 21901 USA.

On behalf of the world piping and drumming community, we extend or sympathies to David Bailiff’s family and friends at this sad time.