Weber County Heritage Foundation

DOUGHBOY MEMORIAL


Project

Doughboy Memorial

The fully restored WWI Doughboy Statue in the Ogden City Cemetery.

The Doughboy Memorial statue

Fundraiser

Challenge coins

Challenge coins are up for purchase for $10. They are sold at the Eccles Art Community Center.

About the restoration

As a continuing force for preservation and history in the community, the Weber County Heritage Foundation is honored to present the fully restored WWI Doughboy Statue in the Ogden City Cemetery.

In cooperation with Ogden City and the American Legion, and with support from RAMP funding, the Foundation restored the statue: cleaning and repairing the bronze, recreating and replacing the lost helmet and rifle bolt, repairing the joint, and applying a new bronze patina. Another component included removing the crumbling concrete dais and replacing it with a new granite monolith.

The statue, sculpted by Gilbert P. Risvold, was originally dedicated in the 1920s. It stood on the balcony of the old American Legion Post on 24th Street in Ogden and was moved to the Ogden City Cemetery shortly after World War II.

The term “doughboy” refers to the nickname for members of the U.S. Army or Marine Corps during World War I, especially members of the American Expeditionary Forces.

Thanks to our supporters

We’re grateful to the individual donors and organizational partners who supported the restoration:

  • Weber County Heritage Foundation
  • National Society Daughters of the American Revolution
  • Golden Spike Chapter NDSAR
  • Baker-Merrill American Legion Post 9
  • Pritzker Military Museum Foundation and WWI Foundation
  • Ogden City Corporation
  • Ogden City Parks – In Memory of Perry Huffaker
  • Wadman Corporation
  • Mountain West Architecture
  • Weber County Ramp Grant
  • Nationwide Monument
  • Adonis Bronze
  • Utah Division of State History and Utah Department of Veterans and Military Affairs
  • Ogden Art Metal Inc.
  • Golden Hours Senior Center – Golden Vets
  • Boy Scouts of America, Troop 18

In Flanders Fields

John McCrae (1872–1918)

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place, and in the sky,
The larks, still bravely singing, fly,
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead; short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders Fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high!
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Fields.