Ray Van Cleef (c. 1911 – May 26, 1964) was an American baseball player,

artist's model An art model poses, often nude, for visual artists as part of the creative process, providing a reference for the human body in a work of art. As an occupation, modeling requires the often strenuous ' physical work' of holding poses for the requ ...

, magazine editor,

physical culturist Physical culture, also known as Body culture, is a health and strength training movement that originated during the 19th century in Germany, the UK and the US. Origins The physical culture movement in the United States during the 19th century ...

and columnist.

Life

Van Cleef was born circa 1911. He took up weightlifting in Siegmund Klein's gym. He played college baseball at

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

, where he won the College World Series Most Outstanding Player Award in 1950. Van Cleef was an

. He was "once in demand by sculptors as a model for Grecian gods." He may have been the original small scale model for Prometheus, a sculpture designed by

Paul Manship Paul Howard Manship (December 24, 1885 – January 28, 1966) was an American sculptor. He consistently created mythological pieces in a classical style, and was a major force in the Art Deco movement. He is well known for his large public com ...

in Rockefeller Center, even though Leonardo Nole is often credited as the only model. Van Cleef was the owner of a gym in San Jose, California. He trained the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

, a baseball team in New York City. He also trained Olympic weightlifters, and he organized weightlifting competitions like the Santa Clara Valley Invitational Tournament in 1963. Van Cleef resided in San Jose, California with his wife Virginia and their two daughters, Lois and Martha. He died of a heart attack on May 26, 1964, at age 53.

Physical culture

Van Cleef was an associate editor at ''

Strength & Health ''Strength & Health'' was a bodybuilding/fitness/Olympic weightlifting magazine, one of the earliest magazines devoted to fitness and bodybuilding. Until the late 1960s, it was the most popular weightlifting magazine in the United States. It was p ...

'', for which he wrote a column called ''Strong Men Around the World''. In his columns, he wrote about wrist-wrestling competitions and walkathons. Van Cleef was one of the few vegetarians involved in physical culture. He was supportive of the American Vegetarian Convention and in 1949 commented that the vegetarian movement needed to clean itself up by dissociating itself from cultists or those making unrealistic claims.Miller, Laura J. (2017). ''Building Nature's Market: The Business and Politics of Natural Foods''. University of Chicago Press. p. 87.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Cleef, Ray 1964 deaths American artists' models American columnists Baseball players from San Jose, California College World Series Most Outstanding Player Award winners People associated with physical culture Rutgers Scarlet Knights baseball players Strength training writers Year of birth uncertain