Ruth Ziolkowski

Ruth Carolyn Ziolkowski (née Ross; June 26, 1926 – May 21, 2014) was an American executive and CEO of the Crazy Horse Memorial, a South Dakota monument dedicated to Crazy Horse which was designed by her late husband, Korczak Ziolkowski.

Ruth Ziolkowski took over the responsibility for the construction of the monument following the death of her husband in 1982.

Korczak Ziolkowski had been focusing on the completion of Crazy Horse's horse at the time of his death. Ruth Ziolkowski changed course, ordering that Crazy Horse's face be completed instead. She hoped that the monument would become a tourist magnet once his 87.5-foot face was finished, providing needed funding for the project. Her prediction proved correct upon the face's completion in 1998 and the statue quickly became one of South Dakota's top tourist attractions. She oversaw the growth, expansion and progress at the Crazy Horse Memorial from the 1980s to the 2010s.

She was born Ruth Ross to Frank and Lydia Ross on June 26, 1926 in West Hartford, Connecticut. She first met Polish American sculptor and artist Korczak Ziolkowski, when she was 13 years old in their native West Hartford. She and a friend showed up at his house to get an autograph from a film actor who was visiting him.

Later, Ross was among a group of student volunteers who helped Ziolkowski create a sculpture of Noah Webster, the creator of the Webster's Dictionary and former resident of West Hartford, over the course of two years. The Webster statue now stands at the West Hartford Library.

Korczak previously helped with the completion of Mount Rushmore during the 1930s. He had been approached by Chief Henry Standing Bear of the Lakota approached him about a potential project. Ziolkowski designed a huge statue of Crazy Horse, a Oglala Lakota chief who helped defeat George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876. He acquired Thunderhead Mountain in the Black Hills, located just 17 miles from Mount Rushmore, from the U.S. federal government, as the site for his monument. He arrived at the site on May 3, 1947 and commenced construction of the Crazy Horse Memorial in 1948.

...
Wikipedia