Louis R. Douglass

Louis Rea "Doug" Douglass (March 2, 1888 – January 13, 1979) was an American civil engineer. He spent more than 20 years with the United States Bureau of Reclamation and was in charge of Hoover Dam and the surrounding park land for four years.

From 1933 to 1954, Douglass worked for the Bureau of Reclamation. He prepared construction drawings for Hoover Dam and other aspects of the Boulder Canyon Project. During the mid-1940s, he was an Assistant Regional Director with responsibility for the Davis Dam 67 miles downstream from Hoover Dam. In 1949, he was sent to Japan where he prepared a study and recommendations for the design and construction of dams and irrigation works. From 1950 to 1954, he served as the Director of Power at Hoover Dam, overseeing the installation of three new generating units, including the first to have a solid stainless steel turbine runner.

Douglass also served in the United States Army Quartermaster Corps during World War I, with responsibility for the construction of Army hospitals at Leon Springs, Texas, as well as U.S. Army General Hospital No. 7 in Baltimore, Maryland, and at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan. He also served three years as the City Engineer in Henderson, Nevada, in the 1950s, and was the Chairman of the Colorado River Advisory Board.

Early years Douglass was born in 1888 in The Territory of The Indian Nations at what later became Gallup, New Mexico.

Engineering career Douglass (second from left) with stainless steel turbine runner at Hoover Dam.

Douglass began his engineering career in 1909 with the Danford & Sanderson firm in Trinidad and Walsenburg, Colorado. He became a junior member of that firm.

After World War I, Douglass moved to Dearborn, Michigan where he worked as an engineer with a subsidiary of the Ford Motor Company. He later formed, and served as president of, the firm of Douglass, Corey and Fish Engineers with offices in Denver, Trinidad, and Walsenburg, Colorado.

In February 1944, Douglass was assigned to Washington, D.C., as Engineering Assistant to the Commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

In October 1944, he was assigned to Boulder City, Nevada as Assistant Regional Director of the Bureau's newly formed Region III. During this time, Douglass was responsible for "a major part of the administrative and engineering responsibility" for the Davis Dam project being built 67 miles downstream from Hoover Dam. In that capacity, he supervised the installation of three new generating units (A-3, A-4, and A-9) at the Arizona wing of the power plant. The A-9 unit was noted for being the first at Hoover Dam to have a solid stainless steel turbine runner. Douglass retired from the Bureau in 1954. At the time of his retirement, Douglass received the United States Department of the Interior Distinguished Service Citation and Gold Medal "for outstanding contributions in the field of water conservation and control."

Douglass was a member of St. Christopher's Episcopal Church in Boulder City and served as a Junior Warden from 1955 to 1960. In his retirement, he built a mahogany pulpit, lectern, prayer desk, and baptismal font for the church.

Douglass was also a popular speaker in the Boulder City area, known as "a raconteur" who, "t the drop of a hat ... could come up with a story for just about any occasion."

In his later years, Douglass and his wife resided at the Boulder City Care Center. He died in Boulder City in 1979 at age 90. He was buried at Trinidad, Colorado.