Jack Douglas
Jack
Douglas (c1933 - 17 April 2012) was born in Waukegan, Illinois, USA.
He was a librarian, university archivist and historian.
One
of the last of a generation of eminent Santa Clara Valley
historians, Jack Douglas was known to scholars for tirelessly
helping preserve local landmarks as well as thousands of photographs
that chronicled the region's evolution from orchards to information
technology.
Douglas was the longtime head of San Jose State
University's archives and also enjoyed impersonating Gen. Henry
Morris Naglee at special events,
For years, Douglas wrote
articles about local history for newsletters published by History
San Jose and the Preservation Action Council. Dozens of those
articles were published as the books "Historical Footnotes of Santa
Clara Valley" (1993) and "Historical Highlights of Santa Clara
Valley" (2005). He also published a book about the Naglee Park
neighbourhood where he lived -- hence his fascination with the
colourful Civil War-era general who gave the area his name -- and
wrote for classical music journals.
"He's going to be really
missed at History San Jose because he was an incredible resource for
us," Ailda Bray, History San Jose executive director, said Thursday.
Bray said Douglas was among the last of an old guard of San Jose
historians that included Leonard McKay, Pat Loomis, Clyde Arbuckle
and Harry Farrell, all now dead.
History San Jose honored
Douglas in 2007 at its annual Valley of Heart's Delight event for
his contributions to local historical understanding.
Douglas
came to San Jose State in 1959 after finishing a master's degree in
library science at the University of Denver.
Douglas was
married previously and has two children, Sandra Douglas and Bruce
Douglas, from that marriage. Douglas and Kathryn Young married in
1982.
In addition to his early work as a librarian, Douglas
helped usher in greater diversity to the campus faculty and student
body through his work with the United Professors of California, said
his longtime friend Thomas Layton, a former San Jose State
anthropology professor.
Douglas longed to teach, and he
finally got the chance with the formation in the late 1960s of the
New College at SJSU, a program devoted to interdisciplinary studies.
Douglas taught a course on Bay Area architects and a "legendary"
course called "Wine Lore," Layton said, in which students picked and
stomped their own grapes and bottled and marketed their own wine.
In the early 1980s, Douglas also served as president of the San
Jose Historic Landmarks Commission. In that role, said his wife,
Douglas helped preserve such buildings as the Jose Theater on South
Second Street (now home to San Jose Improv), and the historic
Scheller House on the San Jose State campus.
"He cared a lot
about San Jose and about the history of it, and I feel like he was
one of the people who helped save some of the landmarks that are
still standing," she said.
As university archivist, Douglas
worked to acquire more than 8,000 photos of the Santa Clara Valley
from 1913 to the 1950s from the heirs of commercial photographer
John C. Gordon.
In retirement, he and Layton and others
acquired another important photographic collection -- thousands of
images shot by Arnold Del Carlo in the 1940s through 1960s -- for
the Sourisseau Academy for State and Local History at San Jose
State.
Both were achievements of which Douglas was rightfully
proud, Layton said.
"Those two collections tell the story of
the development of the valley in detail from 1913 through the
postwar shift from the Valley of Heart's Delight to Silicon Valley,
the hub of the information revolution," he said.
Family
Douglas married as his second wife, Kathryn
Young, in 1982.
Douglas was married previously and has two children, Sandra
Douglas and Bruce Douglas, from that marriage.
He died
Tuesday of lung disease on 17 April 2012. He was 79.
Any contributions will be
gratefully accepted
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