Growing up in the small town of Kingsley, Iowa, Ray Cole started working in the family grocery store at age 5. “I’d sort pop bottles and break 100-pound bags of potatoes down to 5- or 10-pound bags for sale,” he recalled, adding that of the seven kids in his family, he was dubbed “Most Likely to Take Over the Store.”
In fact, while at college in Sioux City, he would drive home to help keep the store going when his father suffered health problems. After all, he planned to graduate and then return to the family business. That meant he was so busy he passed over the opportunity for Briar Cliff University’s new internship program until a department chairman pulled Cole aside and insisted that as a top student, he should help the school put its best foot forward.
