Welch, Douglass

Journalist and humorist, C. Douglass Welch (1906-1968), was best known for his syndicated column, The Squirrel Cage, carried locally by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Journalist and humorist C. Douglass Welch was born in Boston in 1906 and grew up in Tacoma, Washington, where his father was managing editor of the Tacoma News-Tribune . Welch's first job in journalism was as a cub reporter for the News-Tribune in the summers while he was in high school. He attended the University of Washington and briefly worked for the Cleveland Plain Dealer upon graduating in 1928, but soon returned to Seattle where he worked as a reporter and feature writer first for the Seattle Times and later for the Post-Intelligencer . His column The Squirrel Cage, syndicated by King Features, ran in the Post-Intelligencer and many other newspapers from 1958 until his death in 1968. Two collections of these columns, The Squirrel Cage and Neighbors and Other People, edited by his wife, Ruth Hecht Welch, were published in the 1970s. Welch was twice the recipient of the Hearst Newspapers Award for humorous news reporting.

In addition to his newspaper journalism, Welch wrote a large number of comic stories and pieces which were published in The Saturday Evening Post, Equire and other magazines. Stories featuring the character of newspaper photographer "Happy" Digby were subsequently collected in a book, Mr. Digby Stories, and many of Welch's short pieces were adapted for radio and television. One of Welch's short plays, Let's Move the Furniture, was published in an acting edition in 1928. From 1955-1957, Welch worked with the writer Nard Jones on a biography of Teamsters leader Dave Beck; in 1957 Welch was questioned about the book by Robert Kennedy in connection with a senate committee investigating racketeering. Douglas Welch died in 1968.