Thayer was born in Philadelphia and attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he was captain of the lacrosse team in 1879 and also played baseball. A member of a prominent American cricketing family, he played his first match for the Merion Cricket Club as a 14-year-old and continued playing for them until his death. Thayer was a part of the Philadelphian side that visited England in 1884. During that tour he scored only 1 run, with an average of 28, and took 22 wickets for 21 runs each. In his career, Thayer appeared in seven matches now recognised as first-class. Three of these were played for the Philadelphians, and four were played for an "American Born" side. All were played at the Germantown Cricket Club in Pennsylvania. In his first-class career, he scored 138 runs at 11.50 and took six wickets at 26.83. His highest score and best bowling both came for Philadelphia against the United States in October 1883. In minor cricket, his highest scores were 134 not out v Philadelphia in 1896 and 107 not out against Winnipeg in 1882, both for Merion CC.
Family
On November 9, 1893, in Philadelphia, he married Marian Longstreth Morris, the daughter of Frederick Wistar Morris and Elizabeth Flower Paul. Both her parents were descendants of old-moneyed Philadelphia families. They had four children:
Thayer's wife, Marian, boarded one of the lifeboats as a First Class passenger and survived the Titanic's sinking. Of the four children, only Jack accompanied his parents on the ill-fated vessel. As a 17-year old at the time, he survived by jumping into the freezing water and swimming to an overturned lifeboat just as the ship went under.
After leaving the University of Pennsylvania in 1881, Thayer entered the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad as a clerk in the Empire Line office, remaining in that position for about eighteen months, when he was transferred to the general freight department. After holding various positions in 1888 he was appointed freight solicitor of the United Railroads of New Jersey division. From February, 1889, to May, 1892, Thayer was out of railway work before returning to the PRR in May, 1892, as division freight agent of the Northern Central, with headquarters at Baltimore, MD. On December 1, 1894, he was promoted to assistant general freight agent, with office at Philadelphia, Pa., and in March, 1897, was made general freight agent in charge of through traffic. In May,1899, he was appointed general freight agent also of the Northern Central, the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore, and the West Jersey & Seashore. Thayer was elected fifth vice-president, in charge of traffic of the Pennsylvania Railroad on June 1, 1903. In October, 1905 the became fourth vice-president; in March, 1909, third vice-president; and in March, 1911, second vice-president of the company. Mr, Thayer was a director of the Pennsylvania Railroad and its more important controlled lines east of Pittsburgh, including the Long Island and the New York Connecting; he was director and president of the Eric & Western Transport union Company, and was a director of the Norfolk & Western and the Lehigh & Hudson River. He was a member of a large number of clubs and organizations, including the Philadelphia Club, the Union League and the Union Club of New York, the Metropolitan Club of Washington. D. C, the Railroad Club of New York, and the Chamber of Commerce of the state of New York. A minute adopted by the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Railroad after his death said in part:
The ''Titanic''
In the spring of 1912 Thayer and his family had been in Europe as guests of the AmericanConsul General in Berlin, Germany. On April 10 the family boarded the RMS Titanic at Cherbourg-en-Cotentin as first-class passengers and had been preparing for bed on the evening of April 14 when the collision with the iceberg occurred. As the ship sank, Thayer made sure his wife and maid boarded lifeboats, after being told by the Titanic's designer, Thomas Andrews, that the stricken ship did not have "much over an hour to live". His son, Jack, dove from the sinking ship and was able to swim to an overturned collapsible boat, where he also survived. However, Thayer Sr. made it clear that he had no intention of boarding a boat, and he remained on the Titanic as it went down. When all of the lifeboats were gone, one eyewitness reportedly saw Thayer looking "pale and determined by the midship rail aft of lifeboat 7." A short while later, he had gone, so it is likely that he moved to the stern like many other passengers and crew. Initially, the British media had reported that Thayer had survived the sinking, due to confusion between Thayer and his son. Thayer's body, if recovered, was never identified.
