Background
He was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1915 to John Hamilton Thacher and Edith Gilman Thacher.
He was born in Kansas City, Missouri in 1915 to John Hamilton Thacher and Edith Gilman Thacher.
Thacher attended the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey and graduated from Princeton University with a degree in economics.
He had an older brother, John Junior., and an older sister, writer Edith Thacher Hurd. Upon graduation from Princeton, Thacher worked for Bankers Trust and simultaneously worked on a law degree from Fordham University. He entered officer training school and served aboard the United States Ship Pensacola during World World War World War II He was discharged from the navy in January 1946.
Thacher joined the United States Foreign Service in 1947.
He served in Karachi, Jeddah, Calcutta, and Tehran, where he was deputy ambassador to Iran. He was named the United States Ambassador to Saudi Arabia on September 8, 1970, and retired on September 19, 1973.
In retirement, Thacher moved to San Francisco and worked for Wells Fargo. He also lectured at Stanford University.
Thacher was married to Jean-Louise Naffziger, daughter of Howard Christian Naffziger and Louise McNear Naffziger, from 1947 until his death in 2002 from pulmonary fibrosis.
Naffziger died in 2010.