Ulysses S. Grant III

Ulysses S. Simpson Grant III

LOC

Quick Facts

Significance:

Park Manager

Place of Birth:

Chicago, IL

Date of Birth:

July 4, 1881

Place of Death:

Clinton, NY

Date of Death:

August 29, 1968

Place of Burial:

Clinton New York

Cemetery Name:

Hamilton College Cemetery

Ulysses Simpson Grant III was born to Frederick Dent Grant and Ida Marie Honore Grant on July 4, 1881. His father was the son of Union Civil War general and 18th president of the United Stats, Ulysses Simpson Grant. His parents named him for his grandfather.

Frederick Grant served as minister to Austria-Hungary and his son was educated in Europe during his service. He attended college initially at Columbia University before receiving his appointment to his grandfather's alma mater, the United States Military Academy at West Point. He graduated sixth in the class of 1903, just behind Douglas MacArthur.

Grant served initially in the Philippines as an engineer and then was returned to the United States to serve as an aide to president Theodore Roosevelt. In that capacity, he would have trekked through the park with the president and Ambassador Jules Jusserand on their many "point-to-point hikes" throughout the park. Grant also served in Cuba, Mexico and France during World War I. There, he assisted U.S. General Tasker H. Bliss in negotiating and writing the Treaty of Versailles. 

Grant's career returned him to Washington, DC after a brief time spent in San Francisco post-war. By this time, he had been promoted to the rank of Major and was the executive officer of the Arlington Memorial Bridge Commission and a member of the National Capital Parks and Planning Commission.

In 1925, when Lt. Colonel Clarence O. Sherrill retired from the army, Grant took over as the leader of the Office of Public Buildings and Public Parks in the National Capital. His promotion to Lt. Colonel occurred in 1927 and he was placed in charge of Park Police in Washington, DC. Grant was the last military manager of Washington area parks. At that time, management was turned over to the National Park Service. 

Grant Road is named for him. 

After his service in Washington, Grant continued to serve as an engineer in the United States. He was made a Brigadier General in 1940. When the United States entered world War II he was made Chief of the Protection Branch of the Office of Civil Defense--responsible for the civil defenses of the entire United States. He retired to Washington, DC at the end of the war. 

Grant served on the National Capital Park and Planning Commission as well as being a chairman for the Civil War Centennial Commission. He was also the Vice President of George Washington University. 

He retired to Clinton, New York after the death of his wife, Edith Ruth Grant, where he died on August 29, 1968.