John Marshsall Thornley

John was a creator of images, a lover of words, and a student of nature. He brought an intensity to all of his projects. Born in Orange, New Jersey on July 30, 1931, to Robert and Margaret Blair Thornley, John grew up in Millburn, New Jersey, went to Millburn High School. and was an ROTC student at Dartmouth College. He graduated in 1953 as an Ensign in the United States Navy, serving on a destroyer the Charles R. Ware during the Korean War.

He received an MFA in Architecture from Princeton University in 1956 and began his career in the Eero Saarinen office in Detroit, Michigan. His first task for Eero was building a model of a mobile lounge for Dulles Airport. Eero and John Dinkeloo became famous for their innovative use of new materials, such as Cor-ten. Other mid-century designs include the CBS and the Ford Foundation buildings in New York. John stayed with the Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo firm for the design of the John Deere World Headquarters in Moline, Indiana (1964). He taught architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design for 6 years and established his own office; his team won second prize for the design of the Pompidou Center in Paris.

As an associate partner at Warren Platner & Associates for five years, John designed the Observation Deck for the South Tower of the World Trade Center, and an addition to the Providence Atheneum, then a private library (John had membership 450, also held by Edgar Allen Poe). Moving to Rome, Italy, in 1976, for Brown Daltas he oversaw the first banks built in Saudi Arabia to replace the gold stored in private homes. Other projects were in Turkey and Mexico. He worked for an Italian firm, Studio Valle, designing a United Nations Conference Center in in Ethiopia (he took notes in English while the meeting was conducted in Italian).

John married Nancy Crawford, Smith ’54, on June 12, 1954. They had two children. John Marshall Junior (b. May 3, 1956; d. September 11, 1976) was a chess master at 16, and the New England Junior Chess Champion. Daughter, Blair, born in 1959. is an illustrator.

John returned to Truro, Massachusetts, where he had been brought at two weeks old. He built a house on top of a sand dune – a daunting chore for an architect. He served Truro on the building committee, the Zoning Board and the Conservation Trust. Nature was a constant reminder. Time and language interested him, he was researching a book. He could recite poetry and sing lyrics. He taught how to make pasta in his wife’s cooking school. He planted a 40-foot garden and liked to hand-water it himself. He saw an image in every piece of wood and began sculpting. His time in Italy was a joy to remember.

John is survived by his wife Nancy, his daughter Blair Thornley and son-in-law Wolfgang Hastert, of San Diego, California, and his grandson, Otto Hastert, of San Francisco. Donations may be made to the Lily House, 40 Pocahontus Road, Wellfleet, Massachusetts.