Robert Dick Douglas Jr

In 1928, he was selected in a national Boy Scout contest to go on a safari in Africa with Martin and Osa Johnson. The Scouts wrote about their travels, "Three Boy Scouts in Africa". In 1929, he hunted Kodiak bears in Alaska and spent three weeks on a whaling ship in the Pacific, the subject of another book. A third book told of exploring volcanoes –again in Alaska–in 1931. Later he hiked the Appalachian Trail alone for ten days.

In September of this year, he was named a Distinguished Eagle Scout in recognition of his longevity and commitment to Scouting. During the ceremony, Mr. Douglas extolled scouting as a significant influence on his life. He was the longest serving Eagle Scout in the United States, having earned his Eagle on December 8, 1925–90 years ago.

Dick (he was known by his middle name) received three degrees from Georgetown University in Washington, DC, where his father and grandfather also graduated. Admitted to the Bar in 1936, he practiced law in Greensboro until he joined the FBI in 1940 as a special agent under J. Edgar Hoover and later was a supervisor in the Washington FBI office. He returned to Greensboro to join his father in law practice and was a licensed lawyer his until his death, most recently with the firm of Douglas, Ravenel, Hardy, Crihfield and Hoyle. He practiced with his son for forty years. He was president of the Greensboro Bar Association in 1966-67.

Dick specialized in labor relations for many years in cases from Connecticut to Florida. He testified on labor law before the US Senate, argued cases in the Supreme Court (on one occasion bantering with Chief Justice Earl Warren on the merits of Tobacco Road basketball versus West Coast basketball) and gave seminars on labor laws at several law schools. For years he was named in “The Best Lawyers in America.”

In Greensboro, he was on the Board of Directors of the Red Cross, Cone Hospital, the Greensboro Country Club, and a member of the Tryon Palace Commission and Chairman of the Kellenberger Historical Foundation for many years. Also, he was Chairman of the Greensboro Zoning Board of Adjustment.

In 1997, when C-Span reenacted the Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858, Dick gave national television talks on his great-grandfather, Stephen A. Douglas. In 2003, at the urging of his family, Dick told of his life in his book, "The Best 90 years of My Life".

He was active in the Catholic Church in Greensboro and assisted starting four new churches over the years.

Dick loved to talk about meeting his family and friends in the hereafter, and he spoke of the pleasure, as well as comfort, from his daily prayers. He said he gave the Lord a lot of free advice on how to run the world.

In 1942, he married Gladys Neal, who died in 1971. They had three children. Later he married Ruth Sheehy, who had five children from a previous marriage. He is survived by Ruth S Douglas, his wife of forty -three years; by children, Robert D. Douglas, III, Anne D. Kohn, and Elizabeth D. Hickman; his step-children, Thomas R. Sheehy, Susan S. Cole, James R. Sheehy, Paul D. Sheehy and Ann Marie S. Bolen, and by many beloved grandchildren, great grandchildren, nieces and nephews.

A funeral mass will be held at 1:00 pm Tuesday, December 29, 2015, at St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church. Burial will be at Forest Lawn cemetery. The family will visit with friends Monday, December 28, 2015 from 5-6 PM at the Hanes-Lineberry N Elm Funeral Home.

In lieu of flowers, enjoy a chocolate milkshake in his memory.

Online condolences may be made through www.haneslineberryfuneralhomes.com.