Born in Toronto in 1919, Avis belonged to the first generation of PhD-level trained linguists in Canada.
Avis served with the Canadian Forces in Italy during the latter part oh World War II.
From 1952 to his death in 1979, Avis was professor of English at Royal Military College, Kingston, Ontario.
He was a long-term secretary of the Canadian Linguistic Association, President from 1968–70, and was slated to become president-elect of the American Dialect Society in January 1980;[6] however, he died suddenly in December 1979.
[6] He left behind materials and data for a second edition of DCHP, which the remaining members of the editorial team, Matthew H. Scargill, Douglas Leechman, Charles B. Crate and Patrick Drysdale, completed by the late Charles J. Lovell, were unable to utilize.