Ernest William McFarland was an American politician, jurist and, with Warren Atherton, one of the "Fathers of the G.I. Bill". He served in all three branches of government, two at the state level, one at the federal level. He was a Democratic U.S. senator from Arizona from 1941 to 1953 before becoming the tenth governor of Arizona from 1955 to 1959. Finally, McFarland sat as chief justice on the Arizona Supreme Court in 1968.

The G.I. Bill, formally known as the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans. The original G.I. Bill expired in 1956, but the term "G.I. Bill" is still used to refer to programs created to assist American military veterans.