Dwight I. Douglass

Dwight Ireneus Douglass (1884–1940) was an American mining engineer and short story writer who was one of four founders of Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity in 1906.

Douglass was the son of a prominent Colfax, Illinois physician, David T. Douglass. He graduated from Colfax High School and attended college for two years at Ohio Wesleyan University, transferring to Miami University in 1904. He played football at Miami and became associated with a group of independent students who formed the Non-Fraternity Association which would evolve into Phi Kappa Tau.

Douglass maintained close ties with the organization he helped found until he entered World War I where he served as a sergeant with the 27th Engineer Battalion in heavy fighting where he was gassed. He returned the United States from France and attempted to take up farming in southern Illinois. About 1920, he disappeared and his family did not hear from again until sometime in the 1930s. In the meantime, he had married in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and later moved to Hammond, Louisiana where he died and was buried in 1940, having worked for the Veterans Administration and written short stories under a secret pen name.