Education
He was educated at Northfield High School in Northfield, Vermont. He then attended Norwich University (the Military College of Vermont) for 2 years before attending Dartmouth College, from which he graduated in 1879.
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Harry Thayer
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Career
After six months working in the Station Agent"s office at the Bellows Falls Vermont railway station, he became a shipping clerk at $10 per week at Western Electric Company. He was the International department manager in 1897. He traveled to Japan in 1896 and subsequently initiated Western Electric"s participation in the forming of Nippon Electric Company, Limited., where his assistant, Walter Tenney Carleton became a founding director
Thayer soon became the general manager in New York and later vice-president
In 1909 he became president of Western Electric Company and vice-president at American Telephone & Telegraph Company, American Telephone & Telegraph. In 1920 the telephone system was de-nationalized by the Willis-Graham Acting, freeing American Telephone & Telegraph Company to acquire independent telephone companies.
Under Thayer, American Telephone & Telegraph Company flourished as a regulated monopoly and spread into radio broadcasting. In 1925 the research activities of American Telephone & Telegraph Company and Western Electric were consolidated into Bell laboratories
In 1925 Thayer resigned the presidency and became board chairman at American Telephone & Telegraph Company, continuing in that role until he resigned in 1928.
In April 25, 1887 Thayer married Carrie M. Ransom of Ransomville, New New York They had three children together and after living on Staten Island and then Kingsbridge, settled in New Canaan, Connecticut in 1903. Carrie Thayer died in 1916. Harry Thayer died in New Canaan, 3 September 1936.
From 1937 until 2011 the primary dining facility at Dartmouth College was named Thayer Hall in honor of his service to the College, which included serving on the Board of Trustees.
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Born
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Died
1936 (aged 78)