Donald Willis Jr. DOUGLAS

Don Douglas is the youngest American male to win an Olympic medal in any sport. He was only in high school in 1932, but started at Stanford shortly thereafter, where he studied mechanical engineering and aeronautical engineering. As a sailor, he successfully took part several times in the Trans-Pacific Yacht Race from Los Angeles to Hawai’i. Soon after college graduation in 1938 he began a career with Douglas Aircraft, the company which had been founded by his father, and later the McDonnell-Douglas Corp., which lasted over four decades. Douglas eventually became president and chief executive officer of that corporation and was very active in setting up research and development programs in the aerospace field in southern California.