Landon Ketchum Thorne (1888-1964)
of 740 Park Avenue & "Thornham", N.Y., Founder & President of Bonbright & Co.
He was born at Saugatuck, Connecticut, ad graduated from the Pomfret School (1906) and the Sheffield Scientific School at Yale University (1910). During World War I, he served as a Captain in the U.S. Army and from the early 1920s through until the 1930s he served as President of Bonbright & Co., Inc., the largest utility financing company in America. In the same period, he was also head of the American Superpower Corporation. He was a director of several companies including Federal Insurance, Vigilant Insurance, Banker's Trust Company, First National Bank, and Southern Pacific. He was a member of the Long Island State Park Commission and was on the Executive Committee of the New York World's Fair Corporation, Governor of the Society of New York Hospitals and Trustee of the New York Zoological Society.
He was an avid Yachtsman and in 1930 he was the helmsman on Whirlwind which lost to Harold S. Vanderbilt's Enterprise in the trials for the selection of the defender of the America's Cup. He rode with the Millbrook Hunt in Dutchess County and his country estate "Thornham" on the Montauk Highway at Bay Shore (see images) was noted for its gardens designed by Umberto Innocenti. It was demolished in 1976. He was a Member of the Colonial Lords of Manors and the Sons of the Revolution, and in 1941 he toured Britain with Presidential candidate Wendell L. Wilkie. He married Julia, sister of Alfred Lee Loomis, Founder of the Loomis Laboratory at Tuxedo Park, New York. They had two sons (listed) and their granddaughter, Julia Thorne, was the first wife of Senator John Kerry.
He was an avid Yachtsman and in 1930 he was the helmsman on Whirlwind which lost to Harold S. Vanderbilt's Enterprise in the trials for the selection of the defender of the America's Cup. He rode with the Millbrook Hunt in Dutchess County and his country estate "Thornham" on the Montauk Highway at Bay Shore (see images) was noted for its gardens designed by Umberto Innocenti. It was demolished in 1976. He was a Member of the Colonial Lords of Manors and the Sons of the Revolution, and in 1941 he toured Britain with Presidential candidate Wendell L. Wilkie. He married Julia, sister of Alfred Lee Loomis, Founder of the Loomis Laboratory at Tuxedo Park, New York. They had two sons (listed) and their granddaughter, Julia Thorne, was the first wife of Senator John Kerry.
