‘Cowboy professor’ Raymond P. ‘Ray’ Ansotegui nominated to the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame 2024 class

DAN ASTIN

Enterprise Staff Writer

The late Raymond P. “Ray” Ansotegui, of Livingston, was posthumously inducted into the Montana Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Center in Great Falls.

The first full-time professor to be nominated for the accolade, Ray’s impact was not measured by the number of cattle he roped or the prominence of a ranch, but by the number of students he influenced, who spanned multiple generations, according to his son, Raymond Ansotegui.

Ray, who died in March at his home in Livingston, was the nominated from District 9, which includes Gallatin, Meagher, & Park County. One living and one deceased person from each district were nominated based on notable contributions to the history and culture of Montana.

“He belongs in the Cowboy Hall of fame,” Ansotegui said. “He didn’t own a ranch, but influenced so many people.”

Ray was the son of first-generation immigrants, from the Basque Country, an autonomous Spanish community, near the northern border with France. He grew up on a ranch in Paradise Valley, Nevada, and always wanted to be a cowboy, his son said.

In the late 1950’s, at 12 years old, Ray began venturing out on a chuck wagon, minding cattle for up to two weeks at a time, on the open range.

Formative years spent on the Nevada range could have fostered the cowboy’s adaptive drive, contrasted by a colorful yet personable disposition. These unique acquired abilities enabled the cowboy to become a scientist. It wasn’t long until word of the cowboy professor spread.

“I never went anywhere where someone didn’t know him,” Ansotegui said, referencing a situation when he was traveling in Australia and ran into someone who had heard of his father.

Ray went on to write numerous papers on cow biology. However, the childhood acquired tenacity and rough-hewn, outdoor agrarian charm remained.

After becoming a tenured professor at MSU in Bozeman, Ray still looked like he belonged on a horse.

“People meeting him for the first time assumed he worked on a ranch somewhere,” Ansotegui said.

The cowboy professor often wore jingle-bob spurs, a type of metal tool on the heel of a riding boot, which jingles.

“They drove me nuts,” said Ray’s wife, Linda.

The pair met in Nevada, in 1972, when Ray was conducting 4-H presentations with the University of Nevada, Reno. The two bonded over a shared passion for horses and working cows. The couple moved from Nevada to Livingston in 1975.

Shortly after the move, Ray was hired for a one year teaching position at MSU, Bozeman, filling in for a professor on sabbatical. Before long, the one year job had morphed into a 32-year career as a professor.

Ansotegui, who graduated from MSU with a Bachelor of Science in Abused Land Reclamation, expounded on his father’s influence, not only as a parent, but as one of his professors.

During Ansotegui’s first semester at MSU, Ray was the assigned animal science professor for the first class of the day. Throughout the semester, only one other student found out the animal science professor was his father. Ray never demonstrated favoritism in the classroom, and if anything, “graded way harder and set standards high,” Ansotegui said.

As the years passed, Ray became known as a frequent volunteer at innumerable rodeos and as a professor who was not above putting in extra work to place his students in future agricultural positions. Ranches would preemptively call his father, asking if he knew who the ranch should hire.

Ray’s lasting influence on ranches is through his students, according to his son.

“He loved being a cowboy, teaching and people,” Ansotegui said.