Raymond L. "Ray" Loewen (born June 27, 1940) is a former business owner and political figure in

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. He represented

Burnaby-Edmonds Burnaby-Edmonds is a provincial electoral district for the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia, Canada. Geography The district is located in southern Burnaby, British Columbia. It is bordered by Boundary Road to the east, Imperial and Ma ...

in the

Legislative Assembly of British Columbia The Legislative Assembly of British Columbia is the deliberative assembly of the Parliament of British Columbia, in the province of British Columbia, Canada. The Legislative Assembly meets in Victoria, British Columbia, Victoria. Members ar ...

from 1975 to 1979 as a

Social Credit Social credit is a distributive philosophy of political economy developed by C. H. Douglas. Douglas attributed economic downturns to discrepancies between the cost of goods and the compensation of the workers who made them. To combat what he ...

member. Born in

Steinbach, Manitoba Steinbach () ( Plautdietsch: /ˈʃte̞nbah/ or /ˈʃte̞nbax/) is a city located about south-east of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Steinbach is the third-largest city in Manitoba, with a population of 17,806, and the largest community in the Eas ...

, the son of Abraham Loewen, a funeral parlour operator, Loewen completed a degree in theology at

Briercrest Bible College Briercrest College and Seminary is a private evangelical post-secondary educational institution located in Caronport, Saskatchewan, Canada. It comprises a college and a seminary, and operates the Briercrest Christian Academy. History Its prec ...

in Saskatchewan. When his father became ill, he took over the family business. He married Anne Heinrichs in 1962. In 1969, Loewen and his family moved to British Columbia. At that time, he also became involved in real estate and transportation. After leaving politics, Loewen was involved in real estate for a time. During the mid-1980s, he began acquiring Canadian funeral homes. In 1987, the Loewen Group expanded into the United States. By 1997, the company had 15,000 employees and operated 1,115 funeral homes. In 1995, Jeremiah O'Keefe, a funeral home operator in Mississippi represented by Willie E. Gary won

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

500 million in damages in a breach of contract suit. The large amount of punitive damages awarded relative to business assets not worth more than $4 million was criticized, but this setback led to a downturn in the company's fortunes. In 1998, Loewen stepped down as

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

and sold his shares in the company. The Loewen Group filed for bankruptcy protection in 1999; in 2002, it was restructured as the

Alderwoods Group Alderwoods Group, formally The Alderwoods Group, Inc., was a provider of funeral, cremation, and cemetery services in North America with operations in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Its executive office was in Toronto, Ontario, and it ...

. In 2006, Alderwoods board of directors sold Alderwoods to

Service Corporation International Service Corporation International is an American provider of funeral goods and services as well as cemetery property and services. It is headquartered in Neartown, Houston, Texas, and operates secondary corporate offices in Jefferson (New Orle ...

(SCI), an American funeral corporation. In 2008, Loewen's Twin Cedars estate in

Burnaby Burnaby is a city in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia, Canada. Located in the centre of the Burrard Peninsula, it neighbours the City of Vancouver to the west, the District of North Vancouver across the confluence of the Burrard I ...

, British Columbia, was listed for sale at C$25 million, and was sold June 2012 for C$9.948 million.

References

1940 births Living people British Columbia Social Credit Party MLAs People from Steinbach, Manitoba {{BritishColumbia-MLA-stub