Description
Chester Alvin Ronning (1894-1985) was a veteran of both world wars, an educator, politician and diplomat. He was born in
Fancheng, China, to Lutheran missionary parents, Halvor and Hannah. In 1899 the family left China on leave, missing the
1900 Boxer Rebellion, an uprising that targeted Christian missionaries. The Ronnings went to Norway and then to the
United States. Deciding to return to China following the suppression of the unrest, the family travelled by train across
Canada to the west coast. A chance meeting with other Norwegians in Calgary led Halvor Ronning to purchase land in
Alberta. They continued to China but had created a tie to Canada.
Following the death of Hannah Ronning in China, the
Ronning family came back to Canada in 1907, first to their farm at Bardo, near Tofield, and finally around 1913 to
Valhalla in the Peace River Country. Chester Ronning became a teacher and taught in Edmonton schools. Later, he studied
at the University of Minnesota. After serving in WWI, Chester Ronning went back to China to teach but returned to
Alberta in 1927, when he became principal of Camrose Lutheran College, a position he held for 15 years. Ronning also
served as a United Farmers of Alberta member of the Alberta legislature from 1932 to 1935. He was the leader of the
Alberta Co-operative Commonwealth Federation from 1938 to 1943. In 1942, he joined the war effort in Ottawa, where he
carried out intelligence work in the Royal Canadian Air Force.
He received his MA from the University of Alberta in 1942 and began his diplomatic career at the Canadian Embassy in
Nanking, China, where he remained from 1945 to 1951, serving as first secretary and acting ambassador. From 1954 to 1956
he was ambassador to Norway and Iceland and from 1957 to 1964 served as high commissioner to India. Ronning was also the
head of the Canadian delegation to the 1954 Geneva Conferences on Korea.
Although he retired in 1964, Ronning continued to carry out diplomatic missions, and was named special Canadian
representative on peace missions to Hanoi to negotiate an end to the Vietnam War. He also wrote the book ‘A Memoir of
China in Revolution: From the Boxer Rebellion to the People’s Republic’. Ronning was named to the Order of Canada in
1972, and in 1974 became a member of the University of Alberta Senate. His life was the subject of a CBC film, ‘China
Mission: The Chester Ronning Story’.
Feature Type
Road
Designation Year
1986