Cor Van Raay arrived in Canada in 1959 with two years of agricultural college behind him and little else, and built one of southern Alberta’s largest cattle feeding operations from a rented plot of land. In 2021, the Government of Alberta named him to the Alberta Order of Excellence, though he passed away on July 29, 2021, before the investiture ceremony could take place. His Alberta Order of Excellence profile tells the story of a Dutch immigrant who turned southern Alberta farmland into a lifetime of opportunity, for his family and for his community.
From a Dutch Greenhouse to Picture Butte
Cornelius Van Raay was born in Nijmegen, Holland, in 1936, into a family business of horticulture. He moved to Canada in 1959, worked briefly as a landscaper in Vancouver, and was steered toward southern Alberta by a co-worker who knew of farm work near Picture Butte. It was there, in a local coffee shop, that he met Christine Witdouck, whom he married in 1963. Together they raised six children and founded Cor Van Raay Farms, buying 320 acres near Iron Springs in 1964 to grow grain and rent land for sugar beets.
Building Alberta’s Cattle Feeding Industry
The early years were financially difficult, and Cor took work in sawmills and oilfields to get through them. By 1972 he had built his first corrals, starting with 50 head of cattle, and through the 1970s and 1980s expanded the family’s feeding operations while continuing to grow beets, barley, potatoes and wheat. He eventually managed five feedlots regarded as among the best in the world, applying steady improvements in efficiency, environmental stewardship and animal handling to each new operation, and later brought the same approach to expanding Western Canada’s lamb feeding industry. He also diversified into farm implement dealerships, trucking, beef processing and exporting, building direct relationships with American meat packers that helped establish large-scale cattle exports to the United States.
A Fortune Shared With Southern Alberta
After Christine passed away in 2005, Cor began passing Cor Van Raay Farms on to his children while continuing to expand, eventually acquiring 35,000 acres of dryland near Outlook, Saskatchewan. He remained a devoted athlete throughout, running his first marathon at 61 and cycling 7,100 km across Canada at 70. In 2015, he gave a substantial gift, matched by the Alberta government, to establish the Cor Van Raay Southern Alberta Agribusiness Program at Lethbridge College and the University of Lethbridge, training the next generation of agricultural entrepreneurs. His gifts also built the Cor Van Raay YMCA in west Lethbridge, supported the Chinook Regional Hospital Foundation, and funded the Cor Van Raay LINK Pathway connecting Lethbridge and Coaldale.
A Legacy That Outlasted Him
Cor received an honorary doctorate from the University of Lethbridge in 2015, was inducted into the Alberta Agriculture Hall of Fame in 2016, and was named Picture Butte’s Citizen of the Year in 2020. He established the Cor Van Raay Endowment Fund with the Community Foundation of Lethbridge and Southwestern Alberta in 2020, ensuring his giving would continue well past his own lifetime, a fitting final act for a man who spent 50 years reinvesting in the community that gave him his start.
Not every gift carried his name. Cor often reached out to organizations like the Interfaith Food Bank Society of Lethbridge after reading about a need in the local news, and he supported the Community Foundation’s poppy campaign in recognition of Canada’s role in liberating his native Holland. Picture Butte benefited too, with gifts to Picture Butte High School, St. Catherine’s School and parish, local parks and the town’s swimming pool, later renamed the Cor Van Raay & Community Aquatic Centre. He is survived by his sons Kenneth and Darren, daughters Brenda, Sandra, Colleen and Michelle, 11 grandchildren and his companion Julie.
What does it mean to build something so lasting that it keeps giving back long after you are gone?
