Post by blackcrowheart on Jun 27, 2006 21:39:05 GMT -5
Crazy Horse sculptor's wife: In charge at 80 CARSON WALKER
www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/14896852.htm
<http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/14896852.htm>
CRAZY HORSE MEMORIAL, S.D. - Some people openly share their wisdom,
experience and advice on how to live a full life. But Ruth Ziolkowski,
in charge of the world's largest mountain carving, simply leads through
example.
The widow of self-taught sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski, whose dream it was
to honor American Indians by carving the likeness of Sioux warrior Crazy
Horse into a granite mountain in the southern Black Hills, turns 80 on
Monday.
She didn't set out to run a multimillion-dollar operation that spans a
1,000-acre complex, employs 176 - including seven of the couple's 10
children and several grandchildren - and draws more than a million
visitors a year.
But after her husband's death in 1982, Ziolkowski felt she must carry
through with his commitment.
"It's not a one-person deal. I'm the one that gets all of the accolades
and all of the glory and it doesn't need to be that way," Ziolkowski
said in an interview at the memorial's Laughing Water Restaurant.
"This is a team effort. It wouldn't be here if we didn't have a lot of
great people."
Even at 80, Mrs. Z, as she's known around the complex, is very much in
charge. She is always willing to greet visitors with a smile, pose for a
photo and ask where they're from.
Ziolkowski is genuine, sincere, humble and gracious, said Rollie Noem,
chief operating officer.
"She's very detailed but also very visionary. She's an astute business
person and she lives this project 24/7. It is her passion."
Momentum now multiplies the effort that has relied for nearly 60 years
on simple principles: hard work, honesty, respect for others, thrift,
private enterprise and perseverance.
"You can't just have the dream. You've got to work for that dream. And
if it isn't within you and you don't love it yourself, you're not going
to do it because somebody tells you to do it. It has to come from
within," Ziolkowski said.
Which is why she still puts in longer days than anyone else here and has
a peace and joy about her that are rare with people much younger.
"I'm just as happy on Monday as most people are on Friday."
Ruth's Work
While others work on the mountain, Ruth Ziolkowski does most of her work
in her cabin where all 10 children were born. Her desk is the same
linoleum-covered table all 12 family members sat around during meals.
"This is headquarters," she said while sitting at the head of the table,
Korczak's place.
"Telephone, TV set, me."
Papers are stacked on the table and floor. Portraits of the couple and
children line the light green walls.
The setting is simple, as are the dresses and smocks Ziolkowski has made
for herself every birthday and Christmas to wear with her white
moccasins and hair bands.
"Hopefully there's some sort of resemblance to match," she said. "It
doesn't take me long to get up and get dressed in the morning."
She doesn't use a computer but does have an e-mail system that
automatically prints out the messages.
"I pick it up and read it. If I want to talk to somebody or do something
about it, I pick up the telephone. If I don't want to, the wastebasket
is right there," Ziolkowski said.
For written correspondence, which goes to everyone who contributes:
"Your hand does just fine with a pen in it."
Ziolkowski's work ethic inspires and motivates everyone, Noem said.
Her day usually starts around 5:30 a.m. when she and daughter Jadwiga
Ziolkowski outline the day's plans over the phone.
"And then she goes to work and I don't because I have five children at
home," said Jadwiga, 53, who arrives by midmorning to oversee the
restaurant and all business operations. "It's growing really, really
fast."
Indian heroes
She grew up as Ruth Ross in West Hartford, Conn., and met sculptor
Korczak Ziolkowski when she was 13.
In the late 1940s, she came to the Black Hills with other young people
who volunteered to help him start Crazy Horse.
He took on the project at the invitation of Lakota Chief Henry Standing
Bear, who was prompted by Gutzon Borglum's carving of nearby Mount
Rushmore.
Korczak, who assisted Borglum with that project in 1939, disregarded the
first letter from Standing Bear.
"The second letter had the line that really hooked Korczak," Ziolkowski
said. "He (Standing Bear) said, 'We would like the white man to know the
red men have great heroes also.'"
After three years of contemplating the offer while voluntarily serving
in World War II, Korczak came to the Black Hills for good. He and Ross
were married on Thanksgiving Day 1950 at Crazy Horse and his vow to
Standing Bear also became hers.
"He decided it would be well worth his life carving a mountain, not just
as a memorial to the Indian people. He felt by having the mountain
carving, he could give back some pride. And he was a believer that if
your pride is intact you can do anything in this world you want to do,"
Ziolkowski said.
The early years of working on the project alone were difficult. But
quitting was never a thought.
"It was work but it was fun. It really was."
Change in plans
Ziolkowski's main role early on, besides raising the children, was
hosting visitors.
After Korczak's death, she took over as leader and made some bold
decisions. One of the first was to carve Crazy Horse's face before
carving the horse.
The massive, lifelike face was dedicated in 1998, the 50th anniversary
of the first blast, and has helped draw more attention to the project.
"She's not only kept things together but she's overseen all of the
growth that has happened and the expansion and development from all
fronts," Noem said of the carving and the buildings.
Those are projects that help raise the money that will fund the mission
of reconciliation with Indians, Ziolkowski said.
"So when the mountain is finished, every dime you make then can go
toward the university and the medical training center and to keep the
museum going," she said.
Daughter Monique Ziolkowski-Howe, 45, said her mother grew a lot in the
years after Korczak's death.
"She didn't want to be out in the front. She probably doesn't want to be
on the front now. She steps up to the plate and you've got to do what
you've got to do," Monique said.
"They both got the same job done but in two different ways," she said of
her parents.
In 1952, Korczak wrote his children a letter and asked them to reread it
every month if they chose to help carry on the project.
Everyone can learn from it, Monique said.
The letter ends: "You will find in the darkest hours a feeling of great
strength, of great satisfaction, of great joy and happiness, in carrying
out even the mundane tasks that go towards living for something far
greater than yourselves."
29,500 invited
Nighttime blasts on the mountain are held every Sept. 6, Korczak's
birthday, and June 26, Ruth's birthday. This year, Development Director
Fred Tully has planned a celebration for her 80th.
"They invited 29,500 people to my birthday," Ziolkowski said. "I looked
at him and said, 'Fred, if even a tenth of them show up, you're in
trouble.'"
Already she has two large punch bowls stuffed with birthday cards.
"I know what I'm going to be doing for quite a while after the 26th of
June, because I think anybody who is kind enough to write or to send a
gift to Crazy Horse should be thanked."
To her, it's not work.
"You get out of this life what you put into it. It all comes around in a
circle. The Indians believe that, and you see it when you get to be 80.
There are lots of things that you did to someone else that comes back to
you - and good or bad."
On the Net: www.crazyhorsememorial.org/
<http://www.crazyhorsememorial.org/>
www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/14896852.htm
<http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/14896852.htm>
CRAZY HORSE MEMORIAL, S.D. - Some people openly share their wisdom,
experience and advice on how to live a full life. But Ruth Ziolkowski,
in charge of the world's largest mountain carving, simply leads through
example.
The widow of self-taught sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski, whose dream it was
to honor American Indians by carving the likeness of Sioux warrior Crazy
Horse into a granite mountain in the southern Black Hills, turns 80 on
Monday.
She didn't set out to run a multimillion-dollar operation that spans a
1,000-acre complex, employs 176 - including seven of the couple's 10
children and several grandchildren - and draws more than a million
visitors a year.
But after her husband's death in 1982, Ziolkowski felt she must carry
through with his commitment.
"It's not a one-person deal. I'm the one that gets all of the accolades
and all of the glory and it doesn't need to be that way," Ziolkowski
said in an interview at the memorial's Laughing Water Restaurant.
"This is a team effort. It wouldn't be here if we didn't have a lot of
great people."
Even at 80, Mrs. Z, as she's known around the complex, is very much in
charge. She is always willing to greet visitors with a smile, pose for a
photo and ask where they're from.
Ziolkowski is genuine, sincere, humble and gracious, said Rollie Noem,
chief operating officer.
"She's very detailed but also very visionary. She's an astute business
person and she lives this project 24/7. It is her passion."
Momentum now multiplies the effort that has relied for nearly 60 years
on simple principles: hard work, honesty, respect for others, thrift,
private enterprise and perseverance.
"You can't just have the dream. You've got to work for that dream. And
if it isn't within you and you don't love it yourself, you're not going
to do it because somebody tells you to do it. It has to come from
within," Ziolkowski said.
Which is why she still puts in longer days than anyone else here and has
a peace and joy about her that are rare with people much younger.
"I'm just as happy on Monday as most people are on Friday."
Ruth's Work
While others work on the mountain, Ruth Ziolkowski does most of her work
in her cabin where all 10 children were born. Her desk is the same
linoleum-covered table all 12 family members sat around during meals.
"This is headquarters," she said while sitting at the head of the table,
Korczak's place.
"Telephone, TV set, me."
Papers are stacked on the table and floor. Portraits of the couple and
children line the light green walls.
The setting is simple, as are the dresses and smocks Ziolkowski has made
for herself every birthday and Christmas to wear with her white
moccasins and hair bands.
"Hopefully there's some sort of resemblance to match," she said. "It
doesn't take me long to get up and get dressed in the morning."
She doesn't use a computer but does have an e-mail system that
automatically prints out the messages.
"I pick it up and read it. If I want to talk to somebody or do something
about it, I pick up the telephone. If I don't want to, the wastebasket
is right there," Ziolkowski said.
For written correspondence, which goes to everyone who contributes:
"Your hand does just fine with a pen in it."
Ziolkowski's work ethic inspires and motivates everyone, Noem said.
Her day usually starts around 5:30 a.m. when she and daughter Jadwiga
Ziolkowski outline the day's plans over the phone.
"And then she goes to work and I don't because I have five children at
home," said Jadwiga, 53, who arrives by midmorning to oversee the
restaurant and all business operations. "It's growing really, really
fast."
Indian heroes
She grew up as Ruth Ross in West Hartford, Conn., and met sculptor
Korczak Ziolkowski when she was 13.
In the late 1940s, she came to the Black Hills with other young people
who volunteered to help him start Crazy Horse.
He took on the project at the invitation of Lakota Chief Henry Standing
Bear, who was prompted by Gutzon Borglum's carving of nearby Mount
Rushmore.
Korczak, who assisted Borglum with that project in 1939, disregarded the
first letter from Standing Bear.
"The second letter had the line that really hooked Korczak," Ziolkowski
said. "He (Standing Bear) said, 'We would like the white man to know the
red men have great heroes also.'"
After three years of contemplating the offer while voluntarily serving
in World War II, Korczak came to the Black Hills for good. He and Ross
were married on Thanksgiving Day 1950 at Crazy Horse and his vow to
Standing Bear also became hers.
"He decided it would be well worth his life carving a mountain, not just
as a memorial to the Indian people. He felt by having the mountain
carving, he could give back some pride. And he was a believer that if
your pride is intact you can do anything in this world you want to do,"
Ziolkowski said.
The early years of working on the project alone were difficult. But
quitting was never a thought.
"It was work but it was fun. It really was."
Change in plans
Ziolkowski's main role early on, besides raising the children, was
hosting visitors.
After Korczak's death, she took over as leader and made some bold
decisions. One of the first was to carve Crazy Horse's face before
carving the horse.
The massive, lifelike face was dedicated in 1998, the 50th anniversary
of the first blast, and has helped draw more attention to the project.
"She's not only kept things together but she's overseen all of the
growth that has happened and the expansion and development from all
fronts," Noem said of the carving and the buildings.
Those are projects that help raise the money that will fund the mission
of reconciliation with Indians, Ziolkowski said.
"So when the mountain is finished, every dime you make then can go
toward the university and the medical training center and to keep the
museum going," she said.
Daughter Monique Ziolkowski-Howe, 45, said her mother grew a lot in the
years after Korczak's death.
"She didn't want to be out in the front. She probably doesn't want to be
on the front now. She steps up to the plate and you've got to do what
you've got to do," Monique said.
"They both got the same job done but in two different ways," she said of
her parents.
In 1952, Korczak wrote his children a letter and asked them to reread it
every month if they chose to help carry on the project.
Everyone can learn from it, Monique said.
The letter ends: "You will find in the darkest hours a feeling of great
strength, of great satisfaction, of great joy and happiness, in carrying
out even the mundane tasks that go towards living for something far
greater than yourselves."
29,500 invited
Nighttime blasts on the mountain are held every Sept. 6, Korczak's
birthday, and June 26, Ruth's birthday. This year, Development Director
Fred Tully has planned a celebration for her 80th.
"They invited 29,500 people to my birthday," Ziolkowski said. "I looked
at him and said, 'Fred, if even a tenth of them show up, you're in
trouble.'"
Already she has two large punch bowls stuffed with birthday cards.
"I know what I'm going to be doing for quite a while after the 26th of
June, because I think anybody who is kind enough to write or to send a
gift to Crazy Horse should be thanked."
To her, it's not work.
"You get out of this life what you put into it. It all comes around in a
circle. The Indians believe that, and you see it when you get to be 80.
There are lots of things that you did to someone else that comes back to
you - and good or bad."
On the Net: www.crazyhorsememorial.org/
<http://www.crazyhorsememorial.org/>