page_title: Ernest Gruening
section_title: Tributes
hierarchical_section_title: Ernest Gruening / Tributes
caption_attribution_description: English: corner of Gruening and Skyline, Homer, Alaska
context_page_description: Ernest Henry Gruening was an American journalist and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, Gruening was the Governor of the Alaska Territory from 1939 until 1953, and a United States Senator from Alaska from 1959 until 1969.
  Born in New York City, Gruening pursued a career in journalism after graduating from Harvard Medical School. After working for various newspapers in New York and Boston, he served in various roles during the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was appointed as Governor of Alaska in 1939 and became a prominent advocate of Alaska statehood.
  Gruening became one of Alaska's inaugural pair of senators after Alaska gained statehood in 1959. Gruening was a prominent opponent of the Vietnam War, and with Oregon's Wayne Morse, was one of just two senators to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution which allowed the bombing of North Vietnam. In 1968, Mike Gravel defeated Gruening in the senate Democratic primary, and Gruening's attempt to win re-election as an independent was unsuccessful.
context_section_description: The Ernest Gruening Building, a classroom building on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus, is named in his honor. The structure is eight stories tall and 72,000 square feet, making it the first on the college campus to be over three stories. In 1977, Alaska donated a statue of Ernest Gruening to the United States Capitol's National Statuary Hall Collection.  Ernest Gruening Middle School in the Eagle River community of Anchorage, Alaska is named in his honor. Numerous roads and streets in Alaska are named for him as well. As per his wishes, his cremated ashes were scattered on Mount Ernest Gruening near his Alaska home.
caption: Gruening Street in Homer, one of several communities throughout Alaska which has a street named for Gruening.
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