The River Vale Public Library presents Kenneth J. Serfass, Gunnery Sgt USMC, (retired) as General U.S. Grant, discussing the life and myths of Ulysses S. Grant. 

It’s not so important how you fall, but what matters is how you get back up.  It’s also not so important to watch those around you, but more to run your own race, and let them watch you.  Those thoughts are at the heart of why Kenneth has admired Ulysses S. Grant since his elementary school days.

When you sit down with US Grant, you will be encouraged to openly discuss the life lessons that formed the most successful general in our history, and a man who was admired in his own time even more than Abraham Lincoln.   In this encounter US Grant will tell you how his reactions and decisions as a boy and young officer shaped the man he became, and how those same incidents that led to those decisions were all part of a greater destiny than any of us could decide for ourselves to lead a “safe and good” life.

Popular myth in our age has distorted the truth about Grant in many instances, and Ken’s program is meant to give the guests a better understanding of who Grant really was, by bringing him to life, so they can interact with him as friends to learn more about who he really is.

About the Presenter

Gunnery Sgt Kenneth J. Serfass was born in Bethlehem, PA. A US Marine since 1984, his final tour was with the First Marine Division Band during Operation Iraqi Freedom, retiring from the Marine Corps in July of 2004.

Ken is a first-person impressionist with nearly fifty years of study of his childhood hero, U.S. Grant. As a full-time professional living historian portraying Ulysses S. Grant, he presents between 11 and 23 appearances each month between February and December each year.  In 2015 he was invited to join The Federal Generals Corps, a living history club hosting first person impressions of many of the most well-known Union generals in the American Civil War, to be their “Ulysses S. Grant.” 

Entertaining and educational, Ken’s work has generated a great following of supporters.  It is with a profound honor that he tells the story of one of America’s greatest military leaders.