Tag: dies
Ruth Ziolkowski, Key Figure Behind Crazy Horse Memorial, Dies At 87

Ruth Ziolkowski, Key Figure Behind Crazy Horse Memorial, Dies At 87

By David Colker, Los Angeles Times

It was sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski who took on the enormous task of carving a mountain in South Dakota to create a sculpture so mammoth it would dwarf the presidents on nearby Mount Rushmore.

But it was his wife, Ruth, who made the pragmatic financial and public relations decisions that were key to keeping the project — a depiction of Native American warrior Crazy Horse — on track, especially after her husband died in 1982.

“If you don’t have faith,” she said in a 2007 interview at the site of the far-from-completed sculpture, “if you don’t have any imagination, if you don’t have a dream — what are you doing here?”

Ruth Ziolkowski, 87, died May 21 at a hospice care facility in Rapid City, S.D. The cause was cancer, said Mike Morgan, a spokesman for the Crazy Horse Memorial project.

The ongoing operation now has 60 employees year-round, swelling to about 200 in summer when about a million ticket-buying tourists come to the more than 550-foot-tall site. The visitors are a chief source of funding for the project, which, in accord with Korczak Ziolkowski’s instructions, does not accept any government funding.

But Ruth Ziolkowski (pronounced jewel-CUFF-ski) varied from a pivotal aspect of his plan after he died, and her decision went a long way toward attracting tourists.

He had been concentrating on a massive section of the work to depict the horse that Crazy Horse was to be shown riding.

But the strategic blasting and carving was taking so long, it was likely to be years or even decades before much of the horse would be discernible.

She shifted focus to the far smaller section atop the mountain that was to be Crazy Horse’s face. “She knew that something had to be done to keep the interest of visitors and people who donate to the project,” Morgan said.

The face was completed in 1998 and a dedication was held. “She had an appreciation of media coverage,” Morgan said. The face was a huge draw, even though it was basically a guess — no verifiable photos of Crazy Horse, who died in 1877, have been found.

Other crowd attractions at the memorial include night dynamite blasts and laser shows.

Ruth Ziolkowski was a hands-on administrator and ambassador who could often be spotted in the tourist center’s Laughing Water restaurant, talking to visitors. And even after she was moved to hospice care, she participated in meetings via telephone until a few days before her death.

Born Ruth Ross on June 26, 1926, in Hartford, Conn., she met her future husband, briefly, when she was 13 years old. He was an already established sculptor living in the area — she and a few friends went to his house because movie actor Richard Bennett was visiting and they wanted his autograph.

In 1947, when she was 20, she traveled to the Black Hills of South Dakota as a volunteer to help with the recently started project to honor Crazy Horse, best known for his role in defeating federal troops in the 1876 Battle of Little Bighorn. She helped build the main residence and a 741-step wooden staircase leading to the top of the mountain.

Ruth and Korczak married in 1950, and over the years had 10 children. While he worked the mountain, she helped run income-producing projects, including a dairy farm, lumber mill, and the visitors center that has vastly grown over the years.

She didn’t expect to live to see the completion of the sculpture. It’s not even sure that her children, most of whom have been involved with the project in some way, will see it done.

But in a 1989 Los Angeles Times interview, she said that didn’t matter. “When you grow up with something, it becomes a part of you,” she said. “I wouldn’t know what else to do. As a matter of fact, I like what I do, I thoroughly enjoy every bit of it.”

Ruth Ziolkowski is survived by nine of her children: daughters Dawn, Jadwiga, Monique and Marinka; sons John, Adam, Casimir, Mark and Joel; 23 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren. Her daughter Anne died in 2011.

Photo via Flickr

German Collector At Center Of Nazi-Looted Art Scandal Dies

German Collector At Center Of Nazi-Looted Art Scandal Dies

By Andrew McCathie

BERLIN — Cornelius Gurlitt, the German art collector whose stash of famous paintings worth an estimated $1.4 billion sparked an outcry about artwork looted by the Nazis, has died, his spokesman told the German news agency dpa Tuesday.

German prosecutors seized about 1,400 modern classics, including paintings by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Franz Marc, Paul Klee and Max Beckmann, from the 81-year-old Gurlitt’s apartment in central Munich in early 2012.

Since then, investigators have been attempting to determine how many of the artworks in Gurlitt’s collection were confiscated by the Nazis. About 600 works are under investigation.

“I have not loved anything more in my life than my paintings,” Gurlitt told the weekly Spiegel last year.

Many of the paintings were thought to have been acquired by his father, Hildebrand, who was a prominent Nazi-era art dealer.

Gurlitt, who had lived as a recluse and had been investigated for tax evasion, died after a long illness.

“The death of Cornelius Gurlitt brings to an end the (judicial) supervision as well as the investigation,” his lawyers said in a statement.

He had reached a deal in April with government authorities allowing them to examine the paintings in his collection to try to establish their ownership.

The 2012 raid on Gurlitt’s apartment was triggered after customs officers found him traveling on a train from Switzerland carrying a large amount of cash.

Gurlitt sold some of his art collection over the years.

In his interview with Spiegel, Gurlitt claimed he had not watched television since the 1960s and wrote letters to book hotel rooms. He had, however, heard of the internet.

The authorities agreed in April to return to him some of the seized artworks.

His father, Hildebrand Gurlitt, was permitted by the Nazis to sell so-called degenerate art confiscated from museums under a campaign by Hitler’s regime against what it deemed to be un-German or Jewish-Bolshevist art.

Much of this was displayed in the Nazis’ notorious degenerate art exhibition in 1937 in Munich.

Large parts of the art belonged to Jewish collectors who were forced to sell it for a pittance before the Holocaust.

Adam Berry via Flickr

Jim Oberstar, Longtime Minnesota Congressman, Dies At 79

Jim Oberstar, Longtime Minnesota Congressman, Dies At 79

By Baird Helgeson and Kelly Smith, Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

Former U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar, a lion in northern Minnesota politics and the state’s longest-serving congressman, died Saturday in his Maryland home. He was 79.

The veteran Democrat served 36 years — 18 terms from 1975 to 2011 — in Congress.

“His impacts are almost indescribable,” said former state House Majority Leader Tony Sertich, who is from Oberstar’s hometown of Chisholm. “You can’t travel down a road, or a bridge, or an airport or a trail in northeastern Minnesota without his fingerprint on it.”

The son of a miner from Chisholm, Oberstar rose to become chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, one of the most powerful committees in Congress. He was revered by many in his district for bringing countless road, bridge and trail projects to the area and the rest of the state.

Oberstar mentored several Minnesotans who are in politics today and grew to become an almost bigger-than-life character in his region until his stunning defeat in 2010.

Fluent in French and a passionate cyclist, Oberstar traveled the country and the world — often on a bike. Oberstar was regarded as one of the more liberal members of Congress, but he remained a strong opponent of abortion and tougher gun laws. He became an international expert in aviation and a crusader in the effort to boost federal spending for roads, bridges and public transit systems.

After the Interstate 35W bridge collapse in Minneapolis in 2007, Oberstar ensured rapid passage of $250 million in federal money to build a replacement.

Duluth Mayor Don Ness credits Oberstar for his decision to get into politics. Ness became Oberstar’s campaign manager after college, a position he figured he would hold for a couple of years before going into business.

“In Jim, I saw the potential of public service,” Ness said.

Oberstar served until he was defeated by Republican Chip Cravaack in 2010 — one of most stunning political upsets in the nation at the time.

U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan, a Democrat, came out of retirement from politics to defeat Cravaack after one term and continues to hold the seat in Minnesota’s expansive Eighth Congressional District, which includes the cities of Duluth, Brainerd, Grand Rapids and International Falls.

Oberstar was known for his fierce and probing intellect, having a strong command of facts and details. Admirers joked that his wide-ranging intellect had a downside at political conventions, where he was prone to gusty speeches that dragged on.

Around Washington, Oberstar’s name came up as a possible replacement for U.S. secretary of transportation after Ray LaHood resigned the post in 2013.

“Michelle and I were saddened to hear about the passing of Congressman Jim Oberstar,” President Barack Obama said in a written statement. “Jim cared deeply about the people of Minnesota, devoting his 36 years of service to improving America’s infrastructure, creating opportunity for hardworking Minnesotans, and building a strong economy for future generations of Americans.”

Oberstar is survived by his wife, Jean, four children and eight grandchildren.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter Dies; Boxer Was Wrongfully Imprisoned For Murder

Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter Dies; Boxer Was Wrongfully Imprisoned For Murder

By Jessica Gelt, Los Angeles Times

Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, the middleweight boxer whose wrongful triple-murder conviction inspired a film starring Denzel Washington and a song by Bob Dylan, died in Toronto on Sunday. He was 76.

Carter, who died of complications from prostate cancer, had a difficult upbringing in New Jersey and had stints in prison for assault and robbery before channeling himself into boxing. In 1963, Ring magazine listed him as one of its top 10 middleweight contenders of the year.

Three years later, his fortunes changed drastically after he and his friend John Artis were pulled over by police looking for the perpetrators of a triple homicide at the Lafayette Bar and Grill in Paterson, N.J. The victims were white; witnesses said they saw two black men flee the scene in a white car with out-of-state license plates.

Carter was convicted twice (in 1967 and 1976) by all-white juries. He spent 19 years in prison and became a cause celebre for legal injustice and racial inequality. The profile of his plight skyrocketed in 1975 with the release of Bob Dylan’s song “Hurricane.”

Here comes the story of the Hurricane

The man the authorities came to blame

For something that he never done

Put him in a prison cell but one time he could-a been

The champion of the world.

Dylan played the powerful tune — what many consider to be his last great protest song — during nearly every concert of that year’s sold-out Rolling Thunder tour, but Carter was still convicted again the following year.

Carter’s conviction was set aside in November 1985, when he was 48, by a federal judge, who ruled that Carter and Artis did not receive fair trials and released them.

He went on to become the first executive director of the Association for the Defense of the Wrongly Convicted.

Carter’s story got new life in 1999 with the release of the Norman Jewison film “Hurricane,” for which actor Denzel Washington received an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of Carter.

The film was highly controversial, with detractors saying that it took major liberties with the truth. The film glossed over some of the more unpleasant aspects of Carter’s life, they said, and created a cliched parable of racism based on the actions of one cop rather than focusing on the more difficult subject of racism endemic in the justice system.

The fact that the critically acclaimed film landed only one Oscar nomination fueled the controversy. Supporters of the film said the unnecessary protests hindered the movie’s shot at more nominations.

Nonetheless, Carter was thrilled by the film and Washington’s portrayal of him.

“God bless Rubin Carter and his tireless fight to ensure justice for all,” Washington said in a statement to CNN on Sunday.

4WardEver Campaign UK via Flickr