Serving on the Board of Commissioners from 1997 through January 2002, Rankin was named Curator of the
Veterans Memorial Plaza in 2004, donating his time to the position. He was most proud of the fact that the
nearly $80,000 used to create the memorials was all private funding, with no public money used.
He was a combat veteran of WWII and Korea, serving with the United States Marines. A survivor of the
historic battle in the Chosin Resevoir in Korea, Rankin was a member of the Chosin Few, the Marine Corps
League and the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
At the time of his death on October 12, 2004, he was in the process of adding a laser-etched marble
mural to the wall. Earlier this year the Rankin family took up the cause, raising the remaining funds
needed and on Memorial Day 2005, the Iraq mural will be unveiled. It will be dedicated in memory of SPC
Robert T. Benson, KIA Baghdad 11/03, the only Kootenai County causality of the Iraq War.
Commissioners Gus Johnson, Rick Currie and Katie Brodie will officially rename and dedicate the memorial
to honor his memory on May 30, 2005. The Ronald D. Rankin Veterans Memorial Plaza will provide generations
to come with a place to remember the sacrifice of so many throughout our nation's history.
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