Adirondack Moments—“The Nerviest Man I Ever Saw!" Theodore Roosevelt's Audacious Midnight Ride to the Presidency

Teddy Roosevelt biographer Paul Grondahl will discuss the dramatic hours when Roosevelt climbed Mount Marcy, learned that President William McKinley had died of an assassin's wounds, a daring midnight wagon ride to the North Creek train station, and his swearing-in as the 26th President of the United States in Buffalo on September 14, 1901. Grondahl's talk will clarify one lingering mystery about Roosevelt's long delay at the Tahawus Club before he set out for North Creek.

Speaker bio:

Paul Grondahl is the Opalka Endowed Director of the New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany, one of the nation’s pre-eminent literary presenting organizations. He is an award-winning journalist who worked as a reporter for 33 years at the Albany Times Union, where he still contributes a weekly column. He was named director of the Writers Institute in

2017 and is also a distinguished alumnus in arts and letters at UAlbany, where he earned a master’s degree in English. He is the author of several books, including political biographies of Albany Mayor Erastus Corning 2nd and Theodore Roosevelt, titled I Rose Like a Rocket: The Political Education of Theodore Roosevelt. His forthcoming biography, Andy Rooney: A Lucky Life, will be published by SUNY Press in the fall of 2026.