‘I’d rather drive nails than eat.’ Korte leaves indelible mark on metro-east
Nearly every city in the metro-east has a brick-and-mortar footprint left by Ralph Korte, the Highland-based construction giant and philanthropist who died Tuesday at 90.
The Korte Company has built schools, churches, recreation centers, office buildings, banks, department stores, warehouses, medical clinics, housing complexes, a soccer stadium, hospital, movie theater, fire station, museum, racetrack and even a monastery.
Two facilities are named in Korte’s honor: Korte Recreation Center in his hometown and Ralph Korte Stadium at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, his alma mater.
“He had a good run,” said his son, Todd Korte, 58, of Highland, who now serves as the company’s executive chairman.
Some Korte buildings are local landmarks. The company built Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site’s interpretive center in 1989 in Collinsville and Gateway International Raceway (now World Wide Technology Raceway) in 1997 in Madison.
Ralph Korte had a particularly strong relationship with Anderson Hospital. Their long list of collaborations began with construction of the original hospital building in 1977 in Maryville.
“We’ve done a ton of work for Anderson Hospital,” Todd Korte said Thursday. “In fact, we’re doing a $36 million expansion of the emergency department as we speak.”
The company, formerly known as Ralph Korte Construction Co., helped bring mall shopping to the region with a Famous-Barr store (now Macy’s) in 1973 and Stix, Baer & Fuller store (now Dillard’s) in 1979 at St. Clair Square in Fairview Heights.
In Belleville, the company built the Poor Clare Monastery in 1989 and the Church of Our Lady of the Snows a year later. It helped an Olympic gold medalist realize her dream with the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Boys & Girls Club in 2000 in East St. Louis.
One of the company’s largest projects was a four-building complex in Collinsville with 152,700 square feet of space, built in 1987 to house Illinois State Police and other agencies.
Ralph Korte also leaves a legacy of volunteerism and support of charitable causes in the metro-east. Most recently, he and his wife, Donna Korte, helped expand Camp Torqua, a site operated by the Girl Scouts of Southern Illinois in rural Edwardsville.
“Ralph would tell you he was just trying to be a decent guy and do something good with the blessings he was fortunate to have,” according to a tribute on The Korte Company website.
All four of his children, Todd Korte, Greg Korte, Susan Bowman and Vicki Solheim, have worked for the business, which is headquartered in St. Louis with offices in Highland and Las Vegas, Nevada. The company has projects all over the country. Last year, it reported more than $550 million in revenue.
Ralph Korte grew up with 13 siblings and quit school at 14 to work on his family’s small farm in Highland. He particularly loved building things. Legend has it he once declared, “I’d rather drive nails than eat.”
Korte was drafted into the U.S. Army and earned his GED while preparing for deployment to Korea. He later returned to Highland and earned money with construction work, leading him to form his own company in 1958.
Around the same time, Korte met Donna Haller, who would become his wife of more than 65 years. He took night classes at SIUE for nine years to earn a business degree.
“He enjoyed life,” Todd Korte said. “He lived it up. He enjoyed taking us around job sites when we were kids, pointing out all that he did in the area. He was a great dad.”
Ralph Korte retired in 2008. He and his wife traveled widely and spent winters at their second home in Naples, Florida. About two years ago, they moved into an assisted-living apartment at Cedar Ridge Health and Rehabilitation Center in Highland.
Ralph Korte experienced several health problems recently and spent the summer in and out of St. Joseph’s Hospital in Highland before he died on Tuesday, according to Todd Korte.
Ralph Korte is survived by his four children, 11 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
“Ralph’s life was defined by hard work, integrity, and generosity,” states his obituary with Spengel-Boulanger Funeral Home in Highland. “His legacy will live on in every community he touched and in the values instilled in his family, his company, and all who had the privilege to know him.”
Visitations will be held from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday and 8 to 9:45 a.m. Saturday at the funeral home. A funeral Mass will follow at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Paul Catholic Church in Highland.
This story was originally published August 29, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
