John Austin Gronouski Jr., economist, former postmaster general, ambassador to Poland, Wisconsin tax commissioner, and educational administrator, was born in Dunbar, Wisconsin on October 26, 1919. The name was originally spelled Gronowski by family members who settled in Eau Claire County during the 1880s, but was later changed by John A. Gronouski Sr.
The younger Gronouski was raised in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, where he attended St. Peter's School. After three years at Oshkosh State Teachers' College he transferred to the University of Wisconsin where he graduated in January 1942. Three months later, he enlisted in the Army Air Corps. During the next three years, Gronouski served as navigator on 24 combat missions and in July 1944 was one of only three survivors of a plane that was shot down over the English Channel.
Gronouski was discharged from the service in October 1945 with the rank of first lieutenant and returned to the University of Wisconsin where he earned an M.A. in economics and public finance in 1947. From 1948 through 1950, he taught economics at the University of Maine. From 1951 through 1956, he was research associate for the Federation of Tax Administrators in Chicago and instructor at Roosevelt College Evening School. In 1955, he completed his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin.
In 1956, he left the FTA to become a research associate of Harold Groves in a study of Wisconsin income tax administration. From 1957 through 1959, he taught at Wayne State University. At the same time he was on the research staff of the Michigan Tax Study. In 1959, Gronouski returned to Wisconsin to become research director of the Wisconsin Department of Taxation and the University of Wisconsin Tax Impact Study. Over the next four years he was a key figure in the most comprehensive revision ever made in the Wisconsin tax structure. In October 1959, Governor Gaylord Nelson named Gronouski to be director of the Continuing Revenue Survey Commission. In January 1960, he was appointed Wisconsin tax commissioner. Under Nelson and his successor, John Reynolds, the Wisconsin Revenue Dept. nearly doubled in size in order to administer the implementation of a selective sales tax and income tax withholding. In addition to his administrative accomplishments, Gronouski was also an active and sometimes controversial Democrat, and he was, together with Governor Reynolds and State Party Chairman Patrick J. Lucey, sometimes referred to as one of the “Wisconsin Troika.”
In part because of his support for the 1960 presidential candidacy of John F. Kennedy, Gronouski was named to succeed Postmaster General J. Edward Day on September 9, 1963. Gronouski thus became the first American of Polish extraction to hold a cabinet appointment; he was in addition the first person with an earned Ph.D. to serve as a member of the Cabinet.
Gronouski's two years as Postmaster General were important ones for the service. Most notably, he supported the implementation of the ZIP code, the abolition of air mail rates, equal opportunity employment, the use of increased mechanization and automation in order to improve efficiency, and other economy measures. He also continued in his strong partisan role as a frequent speechmaker in behalf of the Johnson Administration, and during the 1964 presidential campaign he was prominent in the effort to win the Polish vote.
On August 29, 1965, Johnson appointed Gronouski U.S. ambassador to Poland. The appointment was a controversial one among many in the Polish-American community who viewed the loss of a cabinet-level representative as a slight. Nevertheless, as the first Polish-American to be appointed to the post Gronouski was in a unique position to carry out the administration's eastern European diplomatic objectives. The appointment was also significant because of the ongoing communications in Warsaw between the United States and China.
In May 1968, Gronouski resigned to order to assume a position as executive vice-chairman of Hubert Humphrey's presidential campaign. In this capacity Gronouski was again assigned an important role in the effort to win votes among the Polish-American community. Following Humphrey's defeat Gronouski briefly worked as a consultant to private industry before accepting an appointment as dean of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.
Gronouski married the former Mary Louise Metz in 1948; they were parents of two daughters.
