Robert Dick Douglas (1875–1960) was a

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

attorney who served as

North Carolina Attorney General The Attorney General of North Carolina is a statewide elected office in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The attorney general is a constitutional officer responsible for representing state agencies in legal matters, supplying other state offici ...

briefly in 1900-1901. He was believed to be the youngest attorney general in the state's history.

Early life and education

Robert was the first son and second child of Robert M. Douglas and Jessie Madeline Dick. He was a grandson of Sen.

Stephen A. Douglas Stephen Arnold Douglas (April 23, 1813 – June 3, 1861) was an American politician and lawyer from Illinois. A senator, he was one of two nominees of the badly split Democratic Party for president in the 1860 presidential election, which wa ...

of Illinois and of

Robert P. Dick Robert Paine Dick (October 5, 1823 – September 12, 1898) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina. Education and career Born on October 5, 1823, in Greensboro, North C ...

, a North Carolina state Supreme Court justice. Douglas graduated from

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

and "read the law" under his grandfather Dick.

Career

At the age of 25, Douglas was appointed by Gov. Daniel L. Russell to serve out the remainder of Attorney General Zeb V. Walser's term. At the time of his appointment, he was the youngest person to ever serve as North Carolina Attorney General and the youngest person serving as a state attorney general in the country. After that he built a practice of law in

Greensboro, North Carolina Greensboro (; formerly Greensborough) is a city in and the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, third-most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte, North Car ...

, where he also served as postmaster. In 1932, Douglas gave or sold his grandfather Stephen A. Douglas's papers to the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

.''Stephen A. Douglas and the American Union''
Exhibit: 12 February - 20 June 1994, University of Chicago Library Special Collections

References

New York Times, December 24, 1900Robert Dick Douglas, Jr., ''The Best 90 Years of My Life''
2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Douglas, Robert Dick 1875 births 1960 deaths North Carolina lawyers North Carolina Attorneys General