Raymond Vincent Borleske was born in Albert Lea, Minnesota on January 8, 1887 and moved to Spokane in 1891, where he graduated from Spokane High School. Two years later, in 1906, he enrolled at Whitman College at the suggestion of the college's president, Stephen Penrose. Borleske was a celebrated athlete at Whitman, playing football and baseball all four years. He was elected captain of the football team in 1908 and 1909 and the baseball team in 1909, and made "All-Northwest" teams in football and baseball that same year. While at Whitman he also served as president of the Associated Students and president of the college's chapter of the fraternity Phi Delta Theta, and worked all four years as a math teacher at the local preparatory school.

After graduating in 1910, Borleske was recruited to play professional baseball for the team based out of Brandon, Manitoba, where he spent a year. He returned for the summer season of 1911, and then in 1912 traded to play for the team from Edmonton, Alberta. Throughout those two years, he spent off seasons working at Broadway High School in Seattle and studying for his law degree from University of Washington at night. He met and married Mignon Kay in 1912, and the couple moved to Portland, Oregon, where he continued his law studies. He passed the state law examination in the June of 1914.

In the summer of 1915, he returned to Whitman to act as the graduate manager, athletic director, and head of physical education. During his years at Whitman he was instrumental in the creation of an annual rotary fund to provide a full-ride scholarship for a student from the Walla Walla valley to attend the College. He suspended this work to spend several months in the infantry in 1918, but otherwise remained in these positions until 1947, when he was elected Mayor of Walla Walla and served until June of 1954. In August of that year, Borleske assumed the role of manager at the Marcus Whitman Hotel, and remained in that position until his death on January 2, 1957.