Paul Douglas | |
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United States Senator from Illinois |
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In office January 3, 1949 – January 3, 1967 |
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Preceded by | Charles W. Brooks |
Succeeded by | Charles H. Percy |
Personal details | |
Born |
Paul Howard Douglas March 26, 1892 Salem, Massachusetts, U.S |
Died | September 24, 1976 Washington, D.C., U.S |
(aged 84)
Nationality | American |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse(s) |
Dorothy Wolff Douglas, divorced Emily Taft Douglas, deceased |
Alma mater |
Bowdoin College Columbia University Harvard University |
Profession | Economist |
Religion | Quaker and Unitarian Universalist |
Awards |
Bronze Star Purple Heart (2) |
Military service | |
Service/branch | United States Marine Corps |
Rank | Lieutenant Colonel |
Battles/wars | World War II |
Academic career | |
Doctoral advisor |
Edwin Robert Anderson Seligman |
Doctoral students |
Martin Bronfenbrenner |
Dorothy Wolff Douglas, divorced
Paul Howard Douglas (March 26, 1892 – September 24, 1976) was an American politician and Georgist economist. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a U.S. Senator from Illinois for eighteen years, from 1949 to 1967. During his Senate career, he was a prominent member of the liberal coalition.
Born in Massachusetts and raised in Maine, Douglas graduated from Bowdoin College and Columbia University. He served as a professor of economics at several schools, most notably the University of Chicago, and earned a reputation as a reformer while a member of the Chicago City Council (1939–1942). During World War II, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel and becoming known as a war hero.
He was married to Emily Taft Douglas, a U.S. Representative from Illinois's At-large district (1945–1947).
Douglas was born on March 26, 1892 in the city of Salem, Massachusetts. When he was four, his mother died of natural causes and his father remarried. His father was an abusive husband and his stepmother, unable to obtain a divorce, left her husband and took Douglas and his older brother to Onawa, Maine in Piscataquis County, where her brother and uncle had built a resort in the woods.