Lewis Douglas had a public career that ranged from copper miner to Arizona Legislator to the U.S. ambassador to England. Born in Bisbee to a well-known Arizona mining family, he was regarded as Arizona’s most illustrious native son. For many years, Lewis had a home in Tucson and died here in March 1974.
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AP file photo
Queen Elizabeth and Lewis Douglas at a dinner in 1957. The subject of their
conversation is lost to history.
Douglas’ career had many highlights, including his election to the Arizona Legislature in 1922. He went on to succeed Carl Hayden as Arizona’s only Congressman, in 1926.
In 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt appointed him director of the Bureau of the Budget. Within a year, he resigned because he found himself in disagreement with Roosevelt’s fiscal policies, about which Douglas coined the phrase “the rubber dollar.”
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President Harry Truman appointed Douglas as ambassador to the Court of St. James in 1947. Douglas and his family formed a strong friendship with the royal family during this period. Princess Margaret and her husband, the Earl of Snowdon, spent five days at the Douglas home in 1965.
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Jack Sheaffer photo
Lewis Douglas
He resigned the from the post in 1950 citing health concerns. He still had problems relating to being gassed during WWI. And a year before he left the ambassadorship, he had taken a fishhook in his left eye and required numerous painful surgeries.
He returned to Tucson where he was very involved in the local banking community and was chairman of Southern Arizona Bank. He also worked in the Eisenhower administration and served on several national boards of directors.
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Star file photo
Lewis and Peggy Douglas
Douglas was married to the former Peggy Zinsser and they had two sons and a daughter. The former ambassador died at his home on Ft. Lowell Rd.
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