Background
Ronning was born in Fancheng, now Xiangzhou Hubei province China, the son of Norwegian American Lutheran missionaries, and graduated from the University of Alberta in 1916 with a Bachelor of Science
Ronning was born in Fancheng, now Xiangzhou Hubei province China, the son of Norwegian American Lutheran missionaries, and graduated from the University of Alberta in 1916 with a Bachelor of Science
University of Alberta.
Ronning"s family moved from China to the Peace River country of Alberta. Halvor Ronning, Chester"s father was instrumental in establishing a Norwegian settlement north-west of Grande Prairie called Valhalla Centre. When Chester Ronning started his studies at the University of Alberta, he travelled by horse from Valhalla Centre to Edmonton along the Edson Trail.
This was the only "road" connecting the Peace country to the provincial capital.
In later years the Northern Alberta Railway (now part of Canadian National Railway) was constructed. He returned to China to serve as a missionary from 1922 to 1927 and then returned to Alberta where he took up a position as Principal of the Camrose Lutheran College.
From his entry into the Legislature, he was an outspoken adherent of the newly formed Company-operative Commonwealth Federation party. He was defeated in the 1935 provincial election that wiped out the UFA government.
He was leader of the Alberta Cleveland Clinic Foundation from 1940 to 1942.
The 1940 Alberta election saw no CCFers elected despite winning 11% of the vote. Ronning ran unsuccessfully for the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in the 1945 federal election in the riding of Camrose, losing to the Social Cr candidate, James Alexander Marshall. Ronning served in diplomatic posts in China (1945–1951), Norway (1954–1957), India (1957–1964) and the United Nations.
He also participated in the international commissions on of Korea (1954) and Laos (1961-1962) and undertook special missions to Hanoi (1965-1966) in attempts to mediate the Vietnam War.
The legacy of Chester Ronning continues today with the Ronning Centre for the Study of Religion and Public Life at the University of Alberta"s Augustana Campus in Camrose, Alberta. The Centre exists to cultivate a deep understanding of issues at the intersection of religion, faith, and public life and to do so in both the public sphere and religious spheres.
Hearkening back to Chester Ronning’s own legacy of hospitality, the mission of the Centre is to nurture a hospitable context that brings forward the finest thinking of women and men of faith in conversation with public intellectuals.
He was a member of the United Farmers of Alberta and on October 25, 1932 he was elected in a by-election for Camrose.