Sam Douglas; Retired Teacher Added Philosophy to Math

A funeral Mass will be said Saturday for Sam Douglas, who was one of the Valley’s oldest public school teachers when he retired at age 73.

Douglas, who injected logic and philosophy into his math classes at Cleveland High School, died Oct. 6 from complications of a recent stroke, said his niece, Maureen Douglas. He was 80.

Born in Newelton, La., Douglas graduated from Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans and started teaching high school in 1949 in his home state. He came to Los Angeles in 1961 and taught at Fremont High School before arriving at Cleveland High School in 1982.

An admirer of Aristotle and Bishop Fulton J. Sheen, Douglas often used maxims to pass along advice and encouragement to his students.

“As I tell it in my classroom, if you take all the oceans in the world and fill them up with diamonds and take all the seas and fill them up with gold, all that weather would not be worth one [student],” he told The Times in 1991.

He went to school every day in a business suit, enjoyed exercising and was often thought to be younger than he was, he said in the interview.

Douglas is survived by his wife of 50 years, Theresa; sons Marion, Raphael and Cortez Douglas; daughters Ronalda Lombardo and Aquina Moore; three brothers; one sister; six grandchildren and one great-grandson.

A rosary will be recited at 7 tonight at Bastian & Perrott Mortuary, 18728 Parthenia St., Northridge. The funeral Mass will be said at 9 a.m. Saturday at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, 18405 Superior St., Northridge, where Douglas attended Mass twice daily.