Lewis Williams Douglas

Lewis Williams Douglas (July 2, 1894 – March 7, 1974) was an American politician, diplomat, businessman and academic.

Early life and education

Douglas was the son of James Douglas, Jr., a mining executive employed by the Phelps Dodge Company, and his wife Josephine "Josalee" Williams Douglas. Growing up in Bisbee and Nacozari de García, at the age of 11 he was sent east at the insistence of his grandfather, James Douglas to attend school. He spent two years at Hackley School before transferring to Montclair Academy, where he won awards for both academic success and character development, graduating in the class of 1912.

On the advice of Arthur Curtiss James, Douglas attended Amherst College, where he joined Alpha Delta Phi and was involved in both athletics and student government. Though he did not take his coursework seriously at first, his performance improved after taking a course in logic from the college president, Alexander Meiklejohn, and graduated cum laude in 1916 with a degree in economics.

After his graduation, Douglas enrolled at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he took courses in preparation for a career as a mining engineer. When the United States joined the First World War, Douglas volunteered for service, receiving a commission as a Second Lieutenant in July 1917. Initially assigned to the field artillery, he later served as an assistant to General Henry A. Greene, the commander of the 91st Infantry Division and was promoted to First Lieutenant in the spring of 1918. Deployed to France in the summer of 1918, he served as an assistant G-3 in the operations branch of division headquarters, where he directed communications. He experienced action at Saint-Mihiel and in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive and received the Belgian Croix de Guerre for heroism. From 1942 to 1947, Douglas served as a trustee before being appointed as the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom in 1947.

Ambassador to the Court of St. James's In February 1947, Douglas was appointed as the ambassador to the United Kingdom, after the untimely death of the previous appointee, O. Max Gardner. As ambassador, Douglas enjoyed an enhanced status, as the new Secretary of State, George Marshall, delegated considerable authority to his subordinates. Because of this, he played an important role in the passage and implementation of the Marshall Plan as it related to the United Kingdom, and was closely involved in coordinating the American and British response to the Berlin Blockade in 1948. In April 1949 he suffered an accident while fly fishing that permanently damaged his left eye and restricted his involvement in official matters while he underwent a slow and incomplete recovery. Because of the damage done to his eye, Douglas wore an eyepatch over it for the rest of his life.

Final years After resigning from the ambassadorship in 1950, Douglas returned to the United States and settled in Tucson, Arizona. He was the chairman and director of the Southern Arizona Bank and Trust Company from 1949 until 1966 and served on a number of boards and commissions, including the General Motors Corporation, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Government Study of Foreign Economic Problems, and the President's Task Force on American Indians. Though declining further suggestions to run for public office, he remained actively involved in state and national politics. While typically endorsing Republicans, he remained a Democrat and supported Lyndon B. Johnson over Barry Goldwater in the 1964 presidential election out of concerns for Goldwater's suitability for the presidency. Douglas died in Tucson, Arizona, on March 7, 1974, from complications following surgery to remove an intestinal obstruction. His remains were later cremated and his ashes scattered over the hills of Jerome.

Electoral history