Ray Van Cleef
Ray Van Cleef was an American baseball player, artist's model, magazine editor 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, where he won the College World Series Most Outstanding Player Award in 1950.
Van Cleef was an artist's model. 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 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, 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 was an associate editor at Strength & Health, 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 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.
