Grant, Ulysses Simpson, 1881-1968

Ulysses Simpson Grant III (July 4, 1881 – August 29, 1968) was an American army officer, civil engineer and architect. The grandson of Ulysses S. Grant, 18th President of the United States, he was born on the Fourth of July and attended Cutler School (1895-1897) and Columbia University (1898), both in New York City. He left in 1898 to fight in the Spanish-American War, and in 1899 entered West Point where he was a classmate of Douglas MacArthur. In 1907 he married Edith Root, daughter of Elihu Root, Roosevelt's secretary of state.

As a member of the Army Corps of Engineers, he served in the Philippines, Cuba, and Mexico. In 1918 he served as secretary of the American section of the Supreme War Council in Paris (for which he received a Distinguished Service Medal). After the war he was assigned to various engineering commands in the United States, eventually becoming Director of Public Buildings and Parks for Washington, D.C. (1926-1933). By 1942 he had advanced to the rank of Brigadier General; from 1942-1944 he was Chief of the Office of Civilian Defense, protection branch. He retired in 1945 with the rank of Major General, and shortly thereafter became president of George Washington University (1946-1951).

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