Ernest Gruening

Born in New York City on February 6, 1886, Ernest Gruening graduated from Harvard in 1907 and from Harvard Medical School in 1912. Gruening forsook medicine to pursue journalism.

• As a reporter for the Boston American in 1912, he went on to become copy desk editor and rewrite man for the Boston Evening Herald and, from 1912 to 1913, an editorial writer. Gruening served as managing editor of the Boston Evening Traveler and the New York Tribune. After serving with the Federal Artillery Corps in World War I, Gruening became editor of The Nation from 1920 to 1923 and editor of the New York Post from 1932 to 1933.
• Intrigued with politics, he switched careers. Gruening was appointed to the U.S. delegation to the Seventh Inter-American Conference in 1933, Director of the Division of Territories and Island Possessions of the Department of the Interior (1934– 1939), Administrator of the Puerto Rico Reconstruction (1935–1937), and a member of the Alaska International Highway Commission (1938–1942).
• In 1939 Gruening was appointed Governor of the Territory of Alaska and served for 14 years.
• Pending statehood, he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1958; with Alaska's admission to the Union in 1959, Gruening served in the Senate for 10 years.
• He died on June 26, 1974.