Watch a video of Steve Koski's memorial service at the new Western Montana State Veterans Cemetery, go to But he was a realist, too, and never more so than on Memorial Day 1998.
Koski was 83 at the time and an honored veteran of World War II. He told a reporter about his frustrating efforts to bring a state veterans cemetery to Fort Missoula.
For the most part, that's what occurred Monday on a mild November morning nearly seven years after Koski passed away.
It wasn't at the fort, but a couple of stone's throws to the north at the new Western Montana State Veterans Cemetery. The 24-acre cemetery was dedicated on Patriots Day, Sept. 11, and the first remains were interred on Oct. 7.
But Plot A-1, the first box on the top row of the columnarium, (a.k.a. “The Wall”), was saved for Koski.
A bagpipe intoned “Amazing Grace” and a 15-gun salute echoed across a quiet valley. More than 50 friends or supporters of Koski's vision stood at attention through a simple, moving ceremony on the eve of Veterans Day.
When everyone had left, Koski's cremains, contained in a wooden urn since he passed away in February 2002, were finally sealed in A-1.
“It's good and it's fitting. Today's the day,” said his son, Steve Koski Jr. of Missoula.
Jan Buchler came from Chicago for her father's long-awaited ceremony.
“This would mean everything to him,” she said, daubing away tears.
Koski served with the Army's fabled Merrill's Marauders, who harassed Japanese troops from China, Burma and India in 1943-1945. Upon retirement, he moved to Missoula in the early 1980s and soon noted the lack of a state cemetery for veterans and their spouses.
“About 12 or 13 years ago, Steve got hold of then-Adjutant Gen. (John) Prendergast,” Lt. Charlie Crookshanks said. “He called and asked if I'd attend a meeting, which I did. Quite a few people represented different groups and talked about a veterans cemetery in this part of the state.”
But the effort stalled, despite Koski's zeal.
His son, who runs an insurance agency in Missoula, recalled Monday the letters his father wrote to congressmen explaining in not-so-taciturn terms why the cemetery was needed.
“He would come in with very direct letters and he'd want me to type it up and I'd say, ‘Dad, why don't you leave this with me for a day or two, let me ghost-write it, edit it? I think we can get the meaning across,' ” the younger Koski said.
Seven years ago, the Western Montana Military Officers Association took on Koski's cause as a project. Crookshanks was appointed chairman, and has spearheaded the drive since Koski passed away.
“It was his vision and his dream that we have this,” Crookshanks said Monday. “He wanted to have it over by the (Fort Missoula) post cemetery, which logically would have been the best place to have it, but it just didn't work out.”
A viable alternative arose when the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, headquartered on Spurgin Road, offered to donate 24 acres of excess land.
“That really gave us a head start,” said Crookshanks.
It was a simple title transfer between DNRC and the Department of Military Affairs, and Koski's dream went from implausible to viable. The $4 million cemetery is one of three in Montana. There's one in Helena and another in Miles City.
Newly planted grass is just poking up, but it's not hard to imagine the cemetery's potential grandeur when completed, especially on mornings like Monday.
Koski's two children placed the urn on a stand in the committal shelter as those in attendance stood outside. His Purple Heart and Bronze Star were on either side of his cremains. A painting “On Their Own Accord” that the elder Koski owned was placed front and center, showing Merrill's Maulers in action in Burma. Other memorabilia adorned the sides.
Jessie Jacobson stood among the onlookers. She didn't know Koski, but said she and her late husband supported Koski's efforts. Bill Jacobson, a Marine who served in World War II, died three years ago. Like many widows in western Montana, Jessie has saved his cremains until the cemetery was completed.
“I've just been waiting, and now in the spring, when I can get my children together, it'll be a lovely place for us,” she said.
Koski's remains were the 38th to be interred or inurned at the new veterans cemetery since Oct. 7, manager Curt Aasved said. When it was opened in October, Garden City Funeral Home had 22 names on its list waiting to be placed there and Sunset Memorial had another 13.
“We knew there'd be quite a rush,” Crookshanks said. “This will probably go on until the first of the year, then it should slack off.”
The veterans cemetery committee lost two members in the past three years. Crookshanks said Bob Wood, a fighter pilot who died a year and a half ago, and Glenn Parmeter, a gunner's mate who died in 2005, will be memorialized on Wednesday and Nov. 20, respectively.
Aasved, a retired Army sergeant, is currently a temporary employee of the state Veterans Affairs Division. A request for two full-time positions, manager and groundskeeper, will be submitted to the next Legislature.
A plaque commemorating Koski and his efforts toward the cemetery is in the works, to be placed in front of the new veterans service office near the main (Tower Street) entrance. The office opened last month as well.
Steve Koski Jr. kept his father's ashes in his office until his sister asked if she could keep at her home in Palos Hills, Ill., near Chicago. When the cemetery became a reality, Jan shipped hem back to Missoula.
“When you talk about resting in peace, Dad was pretty passionate and pretty dedicated and restless toward this goal,” Steve Jr. said. “I think he'd been restlessly waiting, if spirits restlessly wait. His is probably as restless as anyone's.”
“When you serve and not to be able to have a place to be laid to rest Š it just didn't sit right with him,” said Buchler. “We just have to have a way to honor those who serve.”
This, she added, is what her father wanted all along.
“It's the perfect ending.”
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