Donald J. Ruhl Memorial Cemetery, Greybull

After the South Big Horn County Special Cemetery District renamed the Hillside Cemetery at Greybull, Wyoming, to The Donald J. Ruhl Memorial Cemetery, they expressed their desire to construct a conspicuous monument to honor Mr. Ruhl. Greybull Post 32 stepped up to assist.

Donald J. Ruhl’s actions on Iwo Jima earned him the Congressional Medal of Honor. The medal was received by his parents, John (Jack) and Edith Ruhl in December, 1947, when Donald’s remains were interred at Greybull’s cemetery in its VFW Plot. Jack, who was a horseshoer in World War One, erected a flagpole topped by his WWI steel helmet to honor his son. Donald J. Ruhl is one of only seven Congressional Medal of Honor recipients whose remains are buried in Wyoming’s soil. Post 32 was honored and humbled to construct the elevated base on which the black granite monument rests.

As the monument states, it is a humble attempt to honor a true American hero on behalf of “. . . the people of Greybull, Big Horn County, the State of Wyoming, and the United States of America.