Today’s Business news sponsored by:
By
Updated at 8:07 p.m.
Will Raap, a Vermont entrepreneur and environmentalist who died Monday night, may be remembered most widely for founding Gardener’s Supply Company, or for establishing Burlington’s Intervale Center — or maybe for his latest venture, in which he created a common space for new, sustainable farming businesses.
But those who worked with Raap said his impact — consistently aimed at the intersection of community and the environment — was personal.
Raap “completely reimagined what capitalism could do for a community,” said Bill Lofy, who owns a botanical and cannabis company in which Raap was an early investor.
“He created so many opportunities for people,” Lofy said. “He built a business with a couple hundred employees. He created the Intervale. He incubated so many businesses. He mentored so many people.”
In a statement, Raap’s family said his death Monday night followed a long-term illness.
“He was a guiding star and instrumental in the lives of many of us,” Raap’s wife, Lynette, and their three children, Kelsy, Addison and Dylan, said in a written statement Tuesday.
Described by many as a “visionary,” Raap was known to ask big questions and move tricky, mission-driven ventures forward.
He knew “how to create a business that didn’t meet the molds of our parents” and “had the ability to get people engaged in roles and excited about helping to meet those missions,” said Alan Newman, who co-founded Gardener’s Supply Company with Raap.
Newman, who maintained a 40-year friendship with Raap, went on to become a serial entrepreneur, founding the sustainable cleaning product company Seventh Generation, Magic Hat Brewing Company and others.
Cindy Turcot, who worked with Raap in the early days of her career at Gardener’s Supply, is now its CEO.
“Bill was who saw something in me, and invested in me becoming who I became,” she said.
Soon after founding Gardener’s Supply Company in 1983, Raap encouraged the Burlington-based retailer and mail-order business to become employee-owned.
“We started an ESOP, or an employee stock ownership program, in 1987,” Turcot said. “And we were an early adopter. If you think about shared ownership, he really believed that as employees, we should have a stake in the company that we worked for.”
Even in his late 30s, Raap envisioned a company that could share profits with its employees, Turcot said. When she was in her 20s working at the company, he took a pay cut to give her a raise.
The business now employs more than 250 people and has stores in Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.
When Raap first wanted to create an incubator space at the Intervale, the Intervale was “a garbage heap,” Newman said with a laugh. “Nobody saw any value to it whatsoever.” Now, the Intervale, whose mission is to strengthen the local food system, hosts 360 acres of trails and farmland, operates a CSA and provides space for food hubs and new farming endeavors.
“I’ve watched over the last 35 years as the Intervale has become this incredible incubator for farming in the city limits of Burlington,” Newman said. “It has supplied a lot of Burlington with fresh produce. I thought that was the most ridiculous, stupid idea I ever heard, and he managed to pull that one off.”
More recently, Raap had been working to convert Charlotte’s Nordic Farm into an environmentally sustainable operation focused on agriculture and agritourism, called Earthkeep Farmcommon. He also helped his children grow Upstate Elevator Supply Co., a Burlington-based CBD company.
Turcot said Raap approached business with the idea of a “triple bottom line.”
“It’s people, profit, planet,” she said. “That’s how he focused his life, always.”
Lofy, who served as chief of staff for former Gov. Peter Shumlin, called Raap a “towering figure” in Vermont’s business and agricultural communities. Raap brought people together, he said, but was nevertheless “unsparing in his candor” and made people feel his praise was earned.
“Will did not try to put a smiley face on everything,” Lofy said. “He was very direct. He was very blunt. That meant, when Will said that you did a good job, you really knew you did, and he really meant it.”
Raap grew up in Fremont, California. He and Lynette moved to Vermont in the early ’80s and never left.
“He was a creator, he was a visionary,” Lofy said. “I’ve never met anyone like him, and I don’t think I will ever meet anyone in my lifetime quite like Will Raap.”
Paul Heintz contributed reporting.
.
Want to stay on top of the latest business news? Sign up here to get a weekly email on all of VTDigger’s reporting on local companies and economic trends. And check out our new Business section here.
Want to stay on top of the latest business news? Sign up here to get a weekly email on all of VTDigger’s reporting on local companies and economic trends. And check out our new Business section here.
Emma Cotton is a Report for America corps member who covers the environment, climate change, energy and agriculture. Previously, she covered Rutland and Bennington counties for VTDigger, wrote for the Addison Independent and served as assistant editor of Vermont Sports and VT Ski + Ride magazines. Emma studied marine science and journalism at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Email: emma@vtdigger.org
View all stories by Emma Cotton
VTDigger is now accepting letters to the editor. For information about our guidelines, and access to the letter form, please click here.
More obituaries
By
By
By
More commentary
By
By
By
More politics
