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Ernest Gruening (1887)close

Ernest Gruening, a graduate of both Harvard and Harvard Medical School, was Alaska's territorial governor (1935-1953) and a territorial senator (1956-58) of Alaska before it reached statehood; he became U.S. senator from Alaska from 1958-68. He lobbied strongly in Washington for the Alaska territory to become a state, not a colony. As territorial governor during World War II, he organized Alaskan natives into a territorial guard to watch for Japanese invasion along the Bering Sea. Alaska is actually quite close to Japan. During the 1960s, as U.S. senator, Gruening was vocal in his anti-Vietnam War beliefs.

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