COLONEL JOHN JAY DOUGLASS (U.S ARMY, RET)
1922-2018
Colonel John Jay Douglass (U.S Army, ret), 96, passed away quietly on December 22, 2018 at his home at Westminster-Canterbury of the Blue Ridge in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, the only child of Edward Lyman and Edna Ball Douglass on March 9, 1922, he was preceded in death by his parents and his wife of 68 years, Margaret “Papoose” Pickering. He is survived by his three children; Dr. Carrie Bess Douglass, wife of Dr. Fernando Opere of Charlottesville, Va. and their three children, Philip and wife Megan of Arlington, Virginia and great-grandchildren Ryder and Austen; Peter and wife Cheryl of Falls Church, Virginia and great-grandchildren Hudson, Penelope, and Ellie; and Camila and her husband Adam Shearer, of Charlottesville, Virginia; his son Timothy Pickering Douglass and his wife, Judith Firestone of Houston, and their three children Andrew Douglass and wife Kelly of Kyle, Texas and great granddaughter, Emma; son Benjamin Jay Douglass and his wife Samantha, and daughter Cathryn Ann and her husband Cliff Archibald of Houston: and Dr. Margaret Douglass wife of Dr. Michael Seeds of Clemmons, N.C. their son, John and his wife Stephanie, and greatgrandson Theodore of Reston, Virginia, and daughter, Margaret and her husband, Lee Rutter of Austin, Texas.
John Jay attended public schools in Lincoln and graduated from the University of Nebraska with an A.B. degree with distinction in 1943, from the University of Michigan with a J. D. Degree with distinction in 1952, from George Washington University in 1963 with a Degree in international affairs and from the University of Virginia with an LLM. He attended the Army Command and Staff General Staff College and the Army War College. In 1943 he entered the Army from Advanced ROTC and following OCS was commissioned a second lieutenant of infantry. After teaching at The Infantry School for a year, he was transferred to the Caribbean and in 1945, after serving as an infantry company commander was selected as the Public Relations Officer for Caribbean Defense Command, commanded by Lt. Gen. Willis Crittenberger and later by Lt. Gen. Matthew Ridgway. He was commissioned in the Regular Army in 1947 and was selected under an army program to attend law school. Following graduation from Michigan law, he transferred to the Judge Advocate Generals Corps. Thereafter was sent to Korea in 1953 and among other duties was an advisor to the Korean Judge Advocate General. At the end of hostilities in Korea, he was transferred to the Judge Advocate office in Tokyo. Other overseas assignments included the Army headquarters in Europe in Heidelberg 1963 to 1966. He was the Army judge advocate in Vietnam during 1968 – 9 when there were significant changes in the Uniform Code of Military Justice. He took some delight setting up the first case under the new changed code by virtue of the fact that the code was in effect day earlier in that part of the world than those on the other side of the world. After finishing the year in Vietnam, he attended the course for military judges and was assigned as area senior Judge for five Midwestern states
His stateside assignments included those as post judge advocate at Fort Riley, Kansas and Fort Sam Houston, Texas, as well as assignments in the Pentagon. His final assignment from 1970 to 1975 was as the Commandant of The Judge Advocate Generals School at the University of Virginia. This was the climax of this 31 years of service. Col. Douglass’ decorations, in addition to the area and service medals, included the Distinguished Service Medal, the Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf cluster, the Bronze Star and the Army commendation medal with Oak Leaf cluster.
Immediately after retirement from the Army in 1975, he was named Dean of the National College of District Attorneys at the University of Houston, which was a joint project of the American Bar Association, the National District Attorneys Association and the Association of American Trial Lawyers. He lectured for the college throughout the United States and England on prosecutorial ethics and authored two additions of Ethical Issues in Prosecution and edited a six-volume series on prosecutorial functions and was the author of numerous articles in military and legal publications. In 1994 he retired from the National College and continued teaching military law and criminal law and election law at the University of Houston at the UH College of Law. He was often called upon by local and national media to comment on military criminal and election law for the print press as well as radio and TV. He served for 14 years as judge of the absentee ballot board for Harris County. In 2006, he was elected to membership on the Houston city Ethics Committee. His interest in elections went back to his youth and in 1980, he was an unsuccessful candidate in a special election to the Texas legislature, which he always claimed was good for him and for Texas. He was also recommended and interviewed for the position as head of the FBI and for a position on the Federal Election Commission. As he often said he wasn’t very successful in elections or appointments. He retired from teaching at the Law School in 2005.
As appropriate to his lifelong support of his Nebraska Cornhuskers he was a life member of the Nebraska Alumni Association and was given the Alumni Achievement Award in 2002. He was a member of the Texas and Nebraska bar and was very active in the American Bar Association, in which he served for 14 years as a member of the House Delegates and as member and chair and advisory member of the standing committee on Election Law, as a council member of the Criminal Law Section and the Government and Public Sector Lawyers Division and as member of the standing committee on Armed Forces law. For many years He was editor of the magazine of the Government and Public Sector Lawyers Division. He was one of those selected as a member of an American committee sent to observe the first free election in Hungary in 50 years. He was an advisor to the first elected Attorney General of Albania in 1992. During 1995 through 1997 he, served as a consultant to the Procurators of Russia and the Ukraine. He was founder and longtime President of the Retired Army Judge Advocates and was member and president of the Houston area Retired Officers Association. Upon arriving in Houston he and his wife became supporters of the Museum of Fine Arts, the Houston Grand Opera and the Alley Theater. He worshiped in the Episcopal Church for over 60 years. During his life in Houston, he was an active member of Palmer Memorial Episcopal church. He took great pride in discussing his hobby of visiting Episcopal and Anglican churches around the world and counted some 140 where he had attended services.
John Jay and Papoose were inveterate travelers. They had visited every continent except the frozen ones. He was particularly proud of his program to take each of his five grandsons at age 12 (or thereabouts) on an extensive foreign trip which he believed good for the education of boys and an excellent opportunity to bond between grandfather and grandson. These trips did not prevent the grandparents from visiting the same international scenes and they did travel; not for any record, but to enjoy.
For over 50 years, wherever they lived, John Jay and Papoose hosted an annual Black-eyed Pea Party for up to 200 guests during the New Year period. His priest once complained that John Jay was the only person who took attendance at his parties. John Jay explained that he had to do this because he gave awards for attendance. Late in life he took up and enjoyed the sport of tennis, though his only award was when he was assigned as a partner to Clyde Drexler in a tournament at the University of Houston. In the 90’s he and his friend, Pat Hughes formed a two-person luncheon club to which they each invited a guest each week and lunched at restaurants inside the loop of Houston, with the rule of never entertaining the same guest. They got to meet a lot of people and heard a lot of stories.
He was an Eagle Scout (1937), member of the Innocents Society (Senior Men’s Honorary) at Nebraska, Order of the Coif, member of Alpha Tau Omega college fraternity, the Army and Navy Club of Washington, DC, the City Club in Houston, and he was listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in American law. May 2, 2017 was declared John Jay Douglass Day in Houston Texas by Mayor Turner and his good friend, Council Member David Robinson.
A service will be held January 7, 2019 starting at 11:00 am at Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church, 6221 Main Street, Houston Texas. A reception will follow at the church. In lieu of flowers, John Jay wishes that donations be made in his name to the University of Nebraska Foundation for the John Jay Douglass scholarship or to the Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church.