He was born exactly 34 years after the death of Crazy Horse on September 6, 1908 to Polish parents in Boston. He was orphaned at one year of age and was raised in several foster homes where he was treated poorly, but gained heavy costruction skills and learned to work very hard.He put himself through Rindge Technical School in Cambridge at age 16, then became an apprentice patternmaker in the Boston shipyards.

He didn't take any art or sculpture classes, but studied on his own and began experimenting with woodworking, then later, plaster and clay.The Crazy Horse project was only the work of the second half of his life. Before that, he had a successful career sculpting commission pieces throughout New England, Boston and New York and became a member of the National Sculpture Society. After his marble PADEREWSKI portrait won first place at the 1939 World's Fair, one of his boyhood dreams came true when he was asked to work at Mt. Rushmore assisting Gutzon Borglum. He became good friends with Borglum, but had to leave the project after an argument with Borglum's son.

The two years of work on his 13.5 ft. Noah Webster Statue, a gift to West Hartford, Connecticut gained him national attention, not only for his talent, but also the controversy surrounding the sculpture. During that time, he met his future wife, Ruth Ross, one of a few volunteers who helped on the project. He volunteered to serve in World War II at age 34, landing on Omaha Beach and later being wounded. After the war, he was asked to sculpt war memorials in Europe, but declined, having accepted the invitation to spend the rest of his life working on the world's largest art project. He and Ruth were married on Thanksgiving in 1950.

In 1951, Korczak carved "Wild Bill" Hickok out of crazy Horse granite as a gift to Deadwood, South Dakota, and in 1962, he gave a mahogany sculpture of Chief Henry Standing Bear to President John F. Kennedy as a gift. After Korczak's death, his family presentedPresident Bill Clinton with a bronze of Korczak's President John F. Kennedy bas relief and a 1/1,200th scale model of Crazy Horse in 1993. In 1997, Pope John Paul II was given a bronze of Korczak's PADEREWSKI: Study of an Immortal.

Korczak refused to take a salary during his nearly 36 years at Crazy Horse, even though he and Ruth had 10 children. He died at age 74 and is buried in a tomb he and his sons blasted from a rock outcropping which is the site of the future Indian museum. He cut his own epitaph from 3/4" steel plate. It reads:

KORCZAK - Storyteller in Stone - May His Remains Be Left Unknown