Kentucky Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Inc.

The Kentucky Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, Inc. was founded in the early 1980s by Ronald D. Ray and other Kentucky Vietnam veterans. In 1984, the KVVMF was encouraged by Governor Martha Lane Collins and the state legislature to design and raise the necessary funds for the memorial/monument dedicated to the Kentuckians who gave their lives in the Vietnam War. A site overlooking the State Capitol was donated by the State in 1987 and a national competition was held to select an architect and design for the memorial. Helm Roberts, a Kentuckian, was selected as the architect and his design of a large sundial whose shadow touches the inscribed names of each Kentuckian killed on the day of their death. All of the 1,068 names of Kentuckians who died in the war are inscribed on granite slabs of the memorial's plaza.