Robert Wilmot Thorne Sr.

Captain Robert Wilmot Thorne, of East Lyme, CT, passed away on March 9, 2026. Born in Staten Island, NY in 1946, he was the son of Charles Wilmot and Marjorie Prosser Thorne. He attended grade school in New Shrewsbury, NJ (now Tinton Falls) and went to Monmouth Regional High School, graduating in 1964. He then attended Rutgers University for one semester. The following year he accepted his appointment to the Coast Guard Academy (CGA), graduating in 1969. In 1979 he received a Masters degree in Human Resources from the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA.

Captain Thorne had a distinguished 32 year career in the Coast Guard. He was assigned on four Coast Guard cutters including as Commanding Officer on the CAPE MORGAN, a 95 foot patrol boat in Charleston, SC, and on the 180 foot cutter HORNBEAM in Cape May, NJ. He was School Chief for the Coast Guard Officer Candidate School at Reserve Training Center, Yorktown, VA from 1980 to 1983. In 1981, he oversaw the Victory of Yorktown Bicentennial Celebration Honors for President Ronald Reagan and President Francois Mitterrand of France. From 1985-1988, he was assigned to Headquarters U.S. European Command, in Stuttgart, then West Germany. He managed the new African Coastal Security program where he worked with many small navies in West Africa focusing on fisheries protection. In 1990-91, he was the Executive Officer of the Coast Guard Support Center on Governors Island, NY overseeing the most complex Coast Guard installation in the world providing support services to tenant commands and five thousand residents.

Promoted to Captain in 1991, he returned to the Coast Guard Academy as Deputy Commandant of Cadets overseeing the Corps of Cadets and the Professional Studies Department. In 1992, he was assigned to be Director of Admissions serving in this position for nine years where he also volunteered to sponsor all the international students attending the Academy.

He was captain of the CGA soccer and basketball teams, and played on the tennis team. In 1972, he served for four years as the assistant CGA varsity soccer coach. In 1992, he was selected into the Coast Guard Academy Athletic Hall of Fame. He retired from the Coast Guard in 2001.

Among his military medals, he received the Coast Guard Legion of Merit, the Coast Guard Meritorious Service medal, the Coast Guard and Army Commendation medals, and the Defense Meritorious Service medal from Headquarters, U.S. European Command.

In 2002, Captain Thorne worked for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for 7 years as the “Crisis Manager” for the federal government at T.F. Greene Airport, RI. He managed policy and plans, and coordinated with local law enforcement and emergency management agencies for the Federal Security Director.

In 1969, he married the love of his life, Barbara Felton Thorne at the Naval Chapel in Philadelphia. They were married 54 years. His surviving family includes his older sister Ellen Morris Thorne and younger sister, Marion Thorne; his younger brother, Douglas and his wife Marilyn Cassella Thorne; his older son, Robert W. Thorne, Jr. and his wife Marielle Langlois Thorne of Hingham, MA, and their daughter, Kyle, and son, Spencer; and his younger son, Thomas C. Thorne and his wife Vanda Thorne of Prague, Czech Republic and their daughter, Vanessa, and son, Filip, and many Nieces and Nephews.

As a child, Captain Thorne grew up in Egypt for ten years as his father was a TWA navigator, based in Cairo. The family often visited the Valley of the Kings, the Temple of Karnak, Luxor, the great pyramids, and the famous Cairo Museum holding the antiquities of King Tut’s Tomb.

The leader of Egypt, Colonel Gamal Abdul Nasser, awarded the gold medal to “Bobby” for winning the national free style swimming championship under the age of ten. In 1956, Colonel Nasser seized the Suez Canal immediately leading to war with England, France, and Israel. Within days, the Thorne family of six and many Americans were evacuated by the U.S. Sixth Naval Fleet from Alexandria harbor on the Mediterranean Sea.

A memorial service will be held on Monday, March 30th, at noon at the United States Coast Guard Academy Chapel, New London, CT.