Lewis Williams Douglas, an American, but the grandson of James Douglas, who had served as a governor of McGill, 1911-1919, and who had been a major benefactor of the University, was Principal from 1938 to 1939.
Born on 2 July 1894, Douglas was a graduate of Amherst College, with a postgraduate year at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prior to being appointed Principal he was a Vice-President of the American Cyanamid Co. from 1934 to 1937. Under his administration the budget was balanced, to the astonishment of the Governors, the Sir Arthur Currie Memorial Gymnasium project was approved, and the plans for a building to house a radiation laboratory equipped with a cyclotron were authorized by the end of Douglas's first year. He returned to the United States at the outbreak of World War II, where he served in the War Shipping Administration. He was ambassador to the Court of St. James, 1947 to 1950. He died 7 March 1974.