NINTH GENERATION

2445. Landon Ketchum Thorne was born in 1888 in Saugatuck, CN. He graduated in 1906 in Pomfret. He graduated in 1910 in Sheffield Engineering School, Yale. He died in 1964 in New York, NY. He was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, NY. Education class of 1906 at Pomfret. Class of 1910 Sheffield Engineering School at Yale University. During WW I He served as Captain in the US Army.

Vocation: Bond salesman/investor. He began his career with Central Trust Company, the predecessor of Hanover Trust Company. Later He was hired by Bonbright as a junior salesman. In 1920 He was invited to join the partnership, & He was asked to examine the oks. He found the partnership effectively bankrupt. Many senior partners left the firm. Howard Bonbright asked him to run the company & offered to help finance him if he did. LKT asked several relatives including his father to provide capital to expand the activities of the firm. Only his uncle Samuel Brinkerhoff Thorne came through with money. He ended up as president of the Company with his brother-in-law Alfred Loomis until 1933. In that year He was forced to retire from the firm so that He would not have a conflict with his banking directorships under the banking act of 1933.

Under his tenure Bonbright underwrote 15% of ALL securities issued in the US. Their clients included such companies as American Power & Light, Electric Power, & American Power & Commonwealth Power. The firm is credited with shaping the structure of the US power industry.

Alfred & Landon formed an investment company called Thorne Loomis in 1921. In 1923 they formed a company called American Superpower to improve the market for utility securities. It sold stock to buy utility stocks. In 1937 LKT testified to Congress that Superpower was not set up to be a holding company. He tried to keep company ownership below 15%. He did however buy stocks in many holding companies. In 1929 after the very successful underwriting of the third level holding company offering of United Power company American Superpower sold out essentially, all their holdings believing that the market had become too over heated.However, until he died He never sold United Power.

He continued in business with Alfred Loomis until 1955. They shared a large office in the offices of of the law firm White & Case at 14 Wall Street. After his death his sons continued to use that office to oversee family affairs for some period of time.

Along with the above He was a director of Commonwealth & Southern Company, Niagra Hudson Power, Commonwealth Power Company of New Jersey, United Corporation, Bankers Trust Company, First National Bank of New York, Southern Pacific Corporation, the Federal Insurance Company, & the Vigilant Insurance Company.

When He sold his shares in Bonbright, Sidney Mitchell became chief operating officer. The company continued into WW II at which time it was closed down. He took the proceeds with Alfred Loomis into the holding company Thorne Loomis which they ran as a personal investment company until it was distributed in 1955. That formed the basis of his grandchildren's 1955 trusts.

During WW II he went into the Red Cross & remained active on the boards of the above banks & utility companies. In 1934 He traveled by Pan Am Clipper to Europe with Wendall Wilkie. His wife's cousin was Henry Stimson, Secretary of War. A few times during the War he was asked to carry important correspondence between the US & Britain. Near the end of the War, Secretary Stimson was having dinner with LKT, his wife & Helen Thorne at 740 Park Avenuen New York. During dinner Stimson informed the group that the next day the US was to do something that would likely change the future course of the world. The next day the US dropped the A bomb on Hiroshima.

In 1959 or so Alfred Loomis came to him with his friend Charles Avery Fisher, the founder of the Fisher Electronics Company. Alfred had been a long time friend of Fisher's which was unusual at the time in that Fisher was jewish. Alfred was interested in his electronic ideas. Apparently Fisher was about to be cut off from credit by Chase Bank because he was turning inventory too rapidly. Landon introduced him to the head of Citibank. The bank shortly thereafter started a major relationship with Fisher Electronics that allowed the company to grow & continue in its pioneering role in solid state electronics. This story was one told to Peter Thorne by Chip Fisher, Mr. Fisher's son. Edwin Thorne also remembers his father praising the state of art stereo system he had, but had never heard the Avery Fisher story.

He participated in a number of community activities, including being on the boards of the NY Zoological Society, the New York Hospital, to which He gave over $225,000, & the executive board of the 196? World's Fair. He was a good friend of Robert Moses the NY Parks Commissioner, who swam regularly in his pool on the estate in Bayshore Long Island.

Avocation: He was an avid yachtsman, crewing with his son Edwin on the star boat Misty during the olympic trials of 193?. In 1930 he led the syndicate which financed & backed the America's Cup challenger the J boat Whirlwind. He lost to Thomas Lipton, who lost ultimately to the Enterprise.

He was a member of the Colonial Lords of the Manor, Sons of the Revolution, the Downtown, Links, University, & Yale Clubs, as well as the South Shore Sportsman Club & the Millbrook Hunt. He was active in a number of other sports, including tennis & shooting. He acquired Hilton Head Island during the Depression with Alfred Loomis & used it as a shooting plantation, selling it in 1955.

He learned to play guitar during the 1930's & had an arch topped D'Angelico guitar made which has passed to his grandson Peter Thorne.

Addresses: 740 Park Avenue, NYC; Hilton Head, SC; Thorneham; Bayshore, NY. This was 230 acre estate with a Tudor style mansion contaning over 30 rooms, constructed in 1928.

He was married to Julia Atterbury Loomis on 11 Sep 1911 in Tuxedo Park, NY. Julia Atterbury Loomis was born in 1891. She died in 1973. She was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, NY. Landon Ketchum Thorne and Julia Atterbury Loomis had the following children:

+3320 i. Landon Ketchum Thorne Jr.
+3321 ii. Edwin Thorne.