Lewis Williams Douglas

Legislative Resolution

View Legislative Resolution File for Lewis Williams Douglas

Biographical Information

The Honorable Lewis Williams Douglas was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in the November 2, 1926 General Election.  The following is his biography from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress:

DOUGLAS, Lewis Williams, a Representative from Arizona; born in Bisbee, Cochise County, Ariz., July 2, 1894; attended the public schools and Montclair (N.J.) Academy; was graduated from Amherst (Mass.) College in 1916; attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1916; commissioned as a second lieutenant on August 15, 1917, and assigned to the Three Hundred and Forty-seventh Regiment, Field Artillery; promoted to first lieutenant and served overseas as assistant, G-3 staff, Ninety-first Division, until discharged on February 18, 1919; instructor of history at Amherst College in 1920; engaged in mining and general business; member of the Arizona State house of representatives 1923-1925; elected as a Democrat to the Seventieth Congress; reelected to the three succeeding Congresses and served from March 4, 1927, until his resignation March 4, 1933, before the commencement of the Seventy-third Congress; appointed Director of the Budget by President Franklin D. Roosevelt; took the oath of office on March 7, 1933, and served until August 31, 1934, when he resigned; vice president and member of the board of a chemical company 1934-1938; principal and vice chancellor of McGill University, Montreal, Canada, from January 1938 to December 1939; president of an insurance company from 1940-1947, and chairman of the board on leave of absence, 1947-1959; deputy administrator of the War Shipping Administration from May 1942 to March 1944; United States Ambassador to Great Britain 1947-1950; director, General Motors Corporation, 1944-1965; chairman and director, Southern Arizona Bank & Trust Company, 1949-1966; appointed by the President to head Government Study of Foreign Economic Problems, 1953; member, President’s Task Force on American Indians, 1966-1967; died in Tucson, Ariz., March 7, 1974; cremated.

The following is from the Legislative death resolution:

Arizona and this Legislature is saddened by the death of former United States Ambassador to Great Britain Lewis W. Douglas of Tucson on March 7, 1974, at the age of seventy-nine.

The Honorable Mr. Douglas, a United States Congressman from Arizona from 1927 to 1933, also was a member of the Arizona House of Representatives' Sixth Legislature from 1923 through 1925.

Prominent in banking and investment pursuits in this state, he was born July 2, 1894, in Bisbee, Arizona.  He was graduated from Amherst College in Massachusetts in 1916 and attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at Cambridge.

During World War I he served overseas as assistant G-3 staff, Ninety-first Division until discharged in 1919.  He was cited by General Pershing during the Argonne offensive and decorated with the Croix de Guerre by the Belgian government during the Lys-Escaut offensive.

Mr. Douglas engaged in mining and general business in Arizona until elected to the Arizona House of Representatives, where he served on House committees including Public Institutions, as chairman, Printing and Clerks, Labor and County and County Affairs.  He was elected to the Seventieth and three succeeding Congresses and resigned to become Director of the Budget by appointment of President Franklin D. Roosevelt on March 7, 1933.

He was vice chancellor of McGill University in Montreal, Canada, in 1938 and 1939, deputy administrator of the War Shipping Administration from 1942 to 1944 and was confirmed as United States Ambassador to Great Britain on March 5, 1947.  He resigned on December 2, 1950.

He was chairman of the board of directors of the Southern Arizona Bank from 1951 until 1967, when he became honorary chairman and remained active in that position until his death.

Mr. Douglas was a director of General Motors Corporation, was appointed by the President to head a government study of foreign economic problems in 1953 and was a member of the President's Task Force on American Indians in 1966 and 1967

A resident of Tucson, he held trusteeships and directorships in numerous foundations, hospitals, colleges and societies.

Military Experience

World War I veteran:  commissioned as a second lieutenant on August 15, 1917, and assigned to the Three Hundred and Forty-seventh Regiment, Field Artillery; promoted to first lieutenant and served overseas as assistant, G-3 staff, Ninety-first Division, until discharged on February 18, 1919 (Biographical Directory of the United States Congress); He was cited by General Pershing during the Argonne offensive and decorated with the Croix de Guerre by the Belgian government during the Lys-Escaut offensive (Legislative death resolution)

Employment

Arizona Legislative Service

Sources

Birth: AZ birth record; Death: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress; Occupations: obituary:  "Lewis W. Douglas, ex-ambassador dies."  Tucson Daily Citizen, March 7, 1974, pp. 1, 6