Ernest Gruening

Biographical Information
"Ernest Gruening launched the effort to recognize family planning in federal policy, particularly in regard to U.S. international family planning policy. After receiving his medical degree from Harvard, he became a crusading journalist instead, and later was managing editor of the New York Tribune and editor of The Nation and New York Post.  Switching to politics, he was governor of Alaska from 1939 to 1953, during which time he helped enact an anti-discrimination law ensuring equal rights for native Alaskans and white Alaskans.  Later, as a senator from Alaska from 1959 to 1969, he introduced legislation in 1965 to establish offices of population in the Department of State and the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.  While the bill did not pass, the resultant hearings, which lasted three years, raised awareness of the importance of population issues to world peace, economic development, and individual well-being, with an emphasis on personal freedom and equal access to medical services. He served as honorary vice chairman of PPFA from 1969 to 1973."


 * Winner (1968), Margaret Sanger Award