James Henderson Douglas, Jnr
James H. Douglas, Jr., was a partner in the investment bank of
Field, Glore, an influential NY investment bank founded in part by
Marshall Field III.
Douglas was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
His father, James, was a founder and VP of Quaker Oats Company, and Douglas
grew up in Lake Forest, IL. "Douglas graduated from Princeton in
1920 after an interruption for military service (2nd Lt in the Army
in WWI), and spent a year in graduate studies at Corpus Christi
College of Cambridge University, before graduating from Harvard Law
School in 1924. In 1925, he started with Winston & Strawn, but
switched in 1929 to Field, Glore & Company."
In 1927, he
married Grace Farwell McGann of Lake Forest, IL, the daughter of
Grace Farwell and Robert Greaves McGann. Grace F McGann was the
granddaughter of US Senator Charles B Farwell and a niece of the
composer Reginald DeKoven (married to Anna Farwell); the author,
Hobart Chatfield-Taylor (married to Rose Farwell); and businessman
Walter Farwell. Her mother's first husband (d 1898), Dudley Winston,
was the son and brother of the founders of Winston & Strawn
Attorneys at Law.
James Jr and Grace Douglas had four sons:
James Henderson Douglas III, born 27 Jan 1930;
Robert Stuart, born
18 Mar 1932; John Bruce, born 13 July 1938; and David Ogden, born 6
July 1940. Grace Douglas died in 1949. He married Elinor Thompson
Donaldson in 1950.
"In 1932 he left Field Glore to become
Asst Secretary of the Treasury in both the Hoover and Roosevelt
administrations. He resigned in 1933 and organized a Citizens
Committee on Monetary Policy that publicly opposed the Roosevelt
financial program. Douglas returned to Chicago to practice law. He
joined the law firm of Gardner Carton. In 1934, Douglas became a
senior partner, and the firm was renamed Gardner, Carton & Douglas.
In 1953, Douglas returned to Washington and served throughout
the eight years of the Eisenhower Administration as Under Secretary
(1953-1957) and Secretary of the Air Force (1957-1959) and Deputy
Secretary of Defense (1960). He founded the US Air Force Academy. He
was very involved in the Sputnik controversy; for counseling
Eisenhower to accept responsibility for the U-2 espionage flight
over the Soviet Union in 1960; early American involvement in
southeast Asia; and for reaffirming the 1925 court martial/guilty
verdict of Brig. Gen. Billy Mitchell.
In 1960, Eisenhower
gave Douglas the Medal of Freedom.
He was a trustee of the
University of Chicago for 55 years, and was da director of American
Airlines, Marsh & McLennan, the Chicago Title and Trust Company, and
the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. He was a director of the
Fund for the Republic in 1973." [Quotes from
www.smokershistory.com/Benson.html]. He held honorary doctorates of
law from Princeton University and from Lake Forest and Grinnell
Colleges.
He died of cancer in Lake Forest, Illinois on February 24, 1988. He
was 88 years old. Mr. Douglas had four sons by his first marriage to
Grace Farwell McGann, who died in 1949. He married Elinor Thompson
Donaldson in 1950. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his
four sons, James Henderson Douglas 3d of Paris, John, of Arlington,
Vt., and Robert and David, both of West Tisbury, Mass., and nine
grandchildren.
 |
Left to right:
Back row - William Douglas, and John Douglas
Front row - Alexander Douglas, George Douglas and Donald
Douglas.
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