Ray William Bachtell was a Presbyterian missionary with the North Siam Mission. Born on August 10, 1881 in Medina, Ohio, he graduated from Occidental College in 1908, attended Auburn Theological Seminary, and graduated from San Francisco Theological Seminary in 1911.

Bachtell received his board appointment on December 10, 1910 and sailed for Siam (later known as  Thailand) on September 19, 1911. Upon arrival, he was assigned to the Boy’s School in Chiang Rai, a position he held for all of his term of service in Thailand. In 1913, Bachtell married Daisy Pearl Campbell who had already served in the Laos Mission before his arrival. Their marriage was short-lived as Daisy died of malaria on February 3, 1915.

Bachtell married another single missionary, Maud Charlotte Maxwell, on January 30, 1917 in Bangkok. Maud Maxwell had served at the Girl’s School in Chiang Mai from 1914-1916. The Bachtells won the respect of both the national church and Presbyterian mission, with Ray being both an accomplished evangelist and administrator and Daisy, and later Maud, serving as noteworthy teachers.

Both Ray and Maud continued doing evangelistic and education work in Chiang Rai until World War II broke out. They, along with other missionaries, escaped over the Burma border and then went on to India, where they both served at the Boys' School in Fatehgarh. They returned to the USA in 1944, where Ray died of a heart attack on October 6, 1944 in Wooster, Ohio. Maud returned to Thailand and served at a nursery school in Chiang Mai from 1946 to 1949 when she retired.