Thye was born on April 26, 1896 on a farm near Frederick, S. Dak. He was the son of Norwegian-American parents, Andrew John Thye and Bertha Wangan. In 1904 the family loaded its possessions into a freight car and returned to Minnesota, where his parents had met and married, and rented a farm near Northfield.
In 1913 he attended classes at the Tractor and Internal Combustion School in Waterloo, Iowa, and the following year at the American Business College in Minneapolis, which awarded him a degree in 1916.
When the United States entered World War I, he enlisted in the Aviation Section of the United States Army Signal Corps. He served in France, where he was commissioned a second lieutenant.
Following Thye's discharge in January 1919 he was employed by the Deere and Webber Company of Minneapolis as a tractor expert and, from 1920 to 1922, as a salesman. In the latter year he acquired a 280-acre farm near Northfield, which he operated for the rest of his life. Expanding the farm to 562 acres, he raised wheat, corn, hogs, and dairy cows, and maintained a 900-tree apple orchard.
Thye was elected in 1925 to the Sciota town council and later to the school board; he also served as president of the Dakota County Farm Bureau and as a director of the Twin City Milk Producers Association. In 1933 he became an appraiser for the Federal Land Bank in Minnesota. He resigned at the end of 1934.
In 1938, Thye's longtime friend Harold Stassen, the Republican governor of Minnesota, appointed him deputy commissioner of agriculture. He was elected lieutenant governor in 1942. Thye succeeded Stassen as governor when Stassen resigned to serve in the United States Navy in 1943. Thye was elected to a full term as governor in 1944 by the largest vote and the largest majority ever received by a gubernatorial candidate in Minnesota up to that time; he was also the first farmer ever to hold that office.
While serving his last year as governor, Thye was elected to the United States Senate, defeating Henrik Shipstead. Thye served in that body from 1947 to 1959. In the Senate, Thye chaired the Select Committee on Small Business during the Eighty-third Congress.
Seeking a third term in 1958, Thye lost to Eugene J. McCarthy by 63, 000 votes. In 1959, Thye headed a Labor Department consultants' group recommending changes in the Mexican farm labor (bracero) program. He also registered as a lobbyist for the Spring Air Company.
In 1967, Thye suffered a heart attack and was stricken with pneumonia. Thereafter, he disposed of his cattle, sold his farm machinery, and, except for the orchards, leased his lands. He died at his farm near Northfield.
As governor, Thye became popular by addressing the people over the radio and by traveling throughout the state. By insisting on sound finances and management, he reduced the state debt, increased old-age assistance and aid to blind and dependent children, and enlarged overcrowded state institutions. He also promoted better labor relations; labor stoppages during the war years were 70 percent below the years 1936-1938 and well below the national average during the war. He also launched plans for industrial expansion and postwar development of public institutions. He established a human-rights commission, began extensive highway construction programs, and approved a low-cost prepaid medical plan for state workers.
He was liberal and internationalist in his outlook; though Republican, he often voted with the Democratic majority, especially when the measure had bipartisan support. In 1950 he was one of the seven cosigners of Senator Margaret Chase Smith's "Declaration of Conscience" against Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, who had sought to exploit "fear, bigotry, ignorance and intolerance" for political gain.
In 1956, Thye again came to national prominence as a member of the Special Committee on Campaign Contributions, investigating the illegal use of oil money in the campaign of Francis H. Chase. In 1952, Thye originally supported Harold Stassen for president but switched to Dwight D. Eisenhower.
He became a strong supporter of Eisenhower on domestic and foreign policy issues and coauthored the Food for Peace program and the Soil Bank plan.
Quotations: Guiding a reporter around his farm, Thye said, "The greatest way of relaxing that I can find is to go to work on my farm, whether it's driving a tractor, working in the fields or just in the dooryard--and when I want to go to work here, no filibuster can stop me. "
On June 21, 1921, he married Hazel Ramage; they had one child. In 1934 his wife became ill; she died in 1936.
On November 12 of 1942 he married Myrtle Oliver.
