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William H. McDougall Jr.
Reverend Monsignor William Henry McDougall (1909-1988) was an American journalist, author, war hero and a leading figure in the Salt Lake Catholic Diocese. A former reporter for the Salt Lake Teleg...view moreReverend Monsignor William Henry McDougall (1909-1988) was an American journalist, author, war hero and a leading figure in the Salt Lake Catholic Diocese. A former reporter for the Salt Lake Telegram, a correspondent for United Press International and a writer for the Japan Times, Monsignor McDougall spent three years in Japanese prison camps after he was captured during World War II near Sumatra.
Born on June 3, 1909, he graduated from Judge Memorial High School and the University of Portland, then joined the Telegram, where as a young reporter he instituted the use of carrier pigeons to return film and news copy from reporters in the field. He later traveled to Tokyo, where he was employed by the Japan Times, before moving to Shanghai to work for United Press, where he was first captured by the Japanese and held under house arrest in December 1941.
With assistance from the Chinese, he escaped and made his way to Java, where he continued to file stories until that area also fell to the Japanese in 1942. He made it to shore on a lifeboat and spent several days surviving off the land before being recaptured by the Japanese. He spent the next three years in prison camps in Sumatra and Java.
He returned in late 1945 to his native Utah and to his work at United Press. In 1946 he received a Neiman Journalism Fellowship to Harvard University, and two years later entered Catholic University in Washington, D.C.
He was ordained to the priesthood in 1952 and became an assistant pastor in 1954. For more than 20 years he was a priest and rector at the Cathedral of the Madeleine. He also taught at Judge Memorial High School, was editor of the Intermountain Catholic Register and was a founder of the Utah Right to Life League and Birthright.
In 1963 he was made a domestic prelate with the title of right reverend monsignor by Pope John XXIII.
He died in Salt Lake City, Utah on December 8, 1988, aged 79.view less
Books by William H. McDougall Jr.
By Eastern Windows: The Story of a Battle of Souls and Minds in the Prison Camps of Sumatra