James Douglas

A curiously interesting career, in many respects a characteristically interesting career (for it is hard to imagine it on any other continent), was that of James Douglas. Canadian by birth, educated to the practice of medicine, turning to theology long enough to receive his license as a preacher, Dr. Douglas changed his life-work in a striking and unusual way; making his eventual mark as one of the greatest mining and metallurgical experts of our day. In the American copper industry he was a notable figure. Yet those who knew him best will doubt whether his distinguished achievements in this field, and the great fortune which they brought him, gave Dr. Douglas the keen personal gratification which came, first from his unostentatious dispensation of his wealth in charity, and next from the work of his busy pen. He was in these respects a typical American. The colonial history of the New World and the political problems of his native Canada were subjects which alternated, in the mind of this many-sided man, with the high technical problems of his profession.

Alexander Dana Noyes
1919 Century Association Yearbook