On February 18, 1985, he was killed in an avalanche while heli-skiing on Mount Duffy in the Bugaboo Mountains, near Blue River, British Columbia.

[1][2][3] Scurfield was a Canadian businessman who founded one of North America’s largest home building companies, Nu-West Group Limited.

[7] Scurfield's family also owned Sunshine Village ski resort [1] located in Banff National Park, and a share of the Calgary Flames Hockey Club.

[8] His family soon moved to the small farming community of Ninga, Manitoba where his father was the station master on the Canadian Pacific Railway line.

Few who knew him from his rural childhood days could have imagined that the bright boy with reddish hair, who walked to the one-room school house with his pet crow on his shoulder, would grow up to become one of the most successful and influential Canadian businessmen of his generation.

In 1951, lured by the booming Alberta economy, he moved to Edmonton, where he quickly found employment with McConnell Homes as a crew foreman.

With only a secretary and a bobcat driver as employees, Scurfield went to work salvaging the reputation of the near bankrupt Nu-West Homes by fixing previously built houses free of charge.

He travelled extensively, for both business and pleasure, and was an avid sportsman who enjoyed ice hockey, football, skiing, fishing and golf.

In 1981, as a personal guest of former U.S. President Gerald Ford, Ralph and his wife were in attendance to witness the first launching of the NASA Space Shuttle.

Scurfield was one of the founding members of Carma Ltd., a cooperative of independent builders who banded together to form a land development company to provide serviced lots to Calgary homebuilders.

Using his influence, Scurfield established national house building standards, and introduced the "New Home Builder's Warranty Program" which continues to this day.

Things began to get tough in the early 1980s when the federal government brought in the National Energy Program, which didn't allow Albertans to sell oil to other Canadians at world prices.

On February 18, 1985, Scurfield and another person died in an avalanche while heli-skiing in the Monashee Mountains near Blue River, British Columbia.