Meeting of December 14, 2017

Walt Lafty on “Walt Whitman, the Civil War’s Poet Patriot”

Walt described how the Civil War impacted the writings of Walt Whitman and his contributions to the war effort.

For over 30 years, Walt Lafty Jr. has been an amateur genealogist and has researched three direct ancestors who served in the Civil War. With that information and a lifelong interest in history, he began studying and participating in Civil War history. Since that time, Walt joined various groups dedicated to preserving the memory of those ancestors and civil war history. Those groups include: Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War (SUVCW), Bucks County CWRT, DELVAL CWRT, Old Baldy CWRT, and the G.A.R. Museum and Library.

Walt was born, raised, and currently lives in Philadelphia. After enlisting in the U.S. Army in 1968, he served 13 months in Vietnam with the 45th Military Intelligence Company and with the Combined Intelligence Center Vietnam (CICV). He became a Philadelphia Firefighter in 1975 and retired in 1999 to take a position with the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board’s Bureau of Alcohol Education. In 2016 he retired as a supervisor from the PLCB.

In 1996 he earned a B.A.in Psychology from Holy Family University after eight years of part time courses. Walt is married with three children, one step child (deceased), and ten grandchildren.

December 2017 Newsletter