Kenneth J. Serfass,
Gunnery Sgt USMC, retired
as Ulysses S. Grant
Gunnery Sgt Kenneth J. Serfass was born in Bethlehem, PA on June 18th, 1966. 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 to become a music teacher.
Ken WAS a civil war reenactor but now is a first-person impressionist with nearly fifty years of study of his childhood hero, US Grant. As a full-time professional living historian portraying Ulysses S. Grant, he presents between 11 and as many as 23 appearances each month between February and December each year. He jokes that with some of his free time working part time as a brakeman at the Strasburg Rail Road, all his work is dependent on time travel.
Ken began appearing as General Grant in 2009 while living in San Diego CA, and since returning to the east coast, he is engaged on horseback tours and rail road excursion rides, at living history and roundtable events, at public libraries on a regular basis, and annually in Southern California at Huntington Beach’s Civil War Days over Labor Day weekend. Ken is established firmly on both coasts.
He has appeared at Pamplin Park near Petersburg VA, and at several national park sites. 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.” This past October he roamed Tennessee and Mississippi across several of the major battle sites for General Grant, and his programs will reflect a deeper grounding in the events at those places.
He has spoken on Grant’s Vicksburg Campaign to the Gettysburg Licensed Battlefield Guide Association to develop broader civil war study among their guides and is the first Grant impressionist to present his own topics at the General Grant National Memorial, in New York City, giving public interactive addresses, as General and also as President, and has developed Junior Ranger programs for NPS, bringing America’s youth closer to history.
His repertoire includes focused topics on Grant’s battle campaigns, and also his relationships with Lincoln, Lee, and most important, the Grant family, and also the trials of two terms as US President.
Ken’s work has inspired two books he is writing. First is an inside view of what it is to live the life of an historic figure, and the other is historical science fiction of his adventures in living history, set in the civil war and dealing directly with US Grant’s activity in Virginia in 1864.
Entertaining and educational, the spectrum of venues includes schools, service and history clubs, as well as museums, and business groups seeking leadership training and inspiration. Ken’s work has generated a great following of supporters and others who share his love or American history and the attributes of positive role models throughout our national past. Many are happy to refer him to others so they too can talk to history and share in our rich heritage.
It is with a profound honor that he tells the story of one of America’s greatest military leaders and Ken takes it very seriously to reaffirm Grant’s place of honor among the most respected people of our nation’s history.
His passion for the subject is evident in his presentation, and it is hard not to be affected by his enthusiasm for his subject and believe that you’ve met US Grant in living history.