Douglass Diggs, a former city of Detroit Director of Planning and Development in the 2000s, died Friday, May 17, from complications after suffering a massive stroke. He was 55.
Prior to joining the city, Diggs was Director of Community and Economic Development for Detroit Renaissance, a non-profit, civic organization comprised of Southeast Michigan’s business leaders. The organization focuses its efforts on economic development and public policy issues.
A Detroit native, Diggs graduated from University of Detroit Jesuit High School in 1981, Wayne State University, and has an MBA from Davenport University. He was a Crain’s Detroit Business 40 under 40 honoree in 2002.
He was the president and CEO of the Diggs Group Heritage, which provides economic development consulting, and has negotiated more than $760 million in development agreements and secured $22 million in project financing resulting in $71 million in new residential and commercial development.
Diggs’ father was Charles C. Diggs Jr., who became the first African American elected to Congress from Michigan in 1955. That same year, he was the only Congressman to attend Emmitt Till’s funeral in Chicago. His grandfather, Charles C. Diggs Sr., opened Diggs Funeral Home in Black Bottom Detroit in 1921. On 1936. He became the second African American elected to the Michigan Senate. Diggs’ mother, Anna Diggs Taylor, became the state’s first African American female federal judge in 1979. His stepfather, S. Martin Taylor, was former head of New Detroit and later, vice president at DTE Energy.
Survivors include his wife, Dr. Shauna Ryder Diggs; daughters Jacqueline Exyie Diggs and Alexandra Anna Diggs; a sister, Carla Diggs Smith; and stepfather S. Martin Taylor.
Visitation is scheduled for 5-8 p.m. Thursday at Swanson Funeral Home’s Northwest Chapel, 4751 W. McNichols Road. A funeral service will take place at 11 a.m. Friday at Plymouth United Church of Christ, 600 Warren Ave.
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