Douglas, James H. (James Henderson), 1899-1988

James Henderson Douglas, Jr. (1899-1988) was Assistant Secretary of Treasury from 1932 to 1933, Under Secretary of the Air Force from 1953 to 1957, Secretary of the Air Force from 1957 to 1959, and Deputy Secretary of Defense from 1959 to 1961.

James Henderson Douglas, Jr. was born in Iowa in 1899 and graduated from Princeton University in 1920. He studied at Cambridge for one year then attended Harvard Law School, graduating in 1924. A career attorney, Douglas served in the Air Force during World War II where he was deputy chief of staff of the Air Transport Command and later chief of staff of Air Training Command. After the war, Mr. Douglas returned to Chicago to practice law where he remained with his firm until he became Undersecretary of the Air Force in March 1953. He quickly became one of President Eisenhower's key military advisors. In May of 1957, Douglas was appointed the fifth Secretary of the Air force and became instrumental in the established of the United States Air Force Academy. In 1960, he became Deputy Secretary of Defense where he remained until the end of the Eisenhower administration in 1961. Douglas returned to his law practice in Chicago after leaving the Department of Defense, served on the board of directors for several large corporations, and was a trustee of the University of Chicago for more than fifty years. Secretary Douglas died of cancer at the age of 88 in Lake Forest, Illinois.

Lawyer, cabinet member.