Douglas, James Henderson, Jr.

Douglas, James Henderson, Jr.

(1899–1988) government official; born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. A graduate of Princeton and Harvard Law School, he practiced law and was an investment banker before serving in Army Air Force administrative posts during World War II. As Air Force secretary in the second Eisenhower administration during the late 1950s, he helped establish the U.S. Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, Colo. He also reaffirmed the guilty verdict in the 1925 court-martial of air power visionary William (“Billy”) Mitchell.

The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, by John S. Bowman. Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995. Reproduced with permission.