Don “Nick” Clifford, the last remaining member of the group that carved the Mount Rushmore National Memorial, died Saturday at 98, reports CNN.
Clifford’s wife, Carolyn, confirmed his passing.
Don Clifford was one of nearly 400 people who worked on carving the monument from 1927 to 1941. He got the job as a teenager because he knew how to use a jackhammer.
The Mount Rushmore Memorial is a massive sculpture carved into Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills region of South Dakota. The sculpture, which stands roughly 60 feet high, faces depict U.S. presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.
The crews worked long hours in dangerous and harsh conditions, per the National Park Service.
“He’s been a wonderful man. He’s very kind and generous, and somewhat shy,” Carolyn Clifford told KOTA in July during his birthday party. “You wouldn’t know that since he’s in the public, but he enjoys what he’s doing a lot.”
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