Ezra Ripley Thayer
Born	(1866-02-21)February 21, 1866 Milton, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	September 14, 1915(1915-09-14) (aged 49) Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
Resting place	Hingham Center Cemetery,Hingham, Massachusetts
Education	Harvard University
Occupation	Attorney
Spouse	Ethel Randolph Clark (m. 1898-1915, his death)
Children	3, includingPolly

Ezra Ripley Thayer (February 21, 1866 – September 14, 1915) was an attorney, Dane Professor of Law, and theDean of Harvard Law School from 1910 to 1915.

Ezra Ripley Thayer was born inMilton, Massachusetts on February 21, 1866 to Harvard Law School professorJames Bradley Thayer, and Sophia Bradford (Ripley) Thayer. His oldest brotherWilliam Sydney Thayer became a professor of medicine. He attended public schools inCambridge, Massachusetts, and studied abroad with a tutor for a year in Athens, Greece. Upon his return, he enteredHarvard College with the class of 1888. After graduation, Thayer attendedHarvard Law School, where he graduated with an LL.B. in 1891.^[1]

He married Ethel Randolph Clark on June 23, 1898 and had three children: James Bradley Thayer (1899–1976), Eleanor Arnold Thayer (1902–1923), andPolly (1904–2006).

Thayer served as Secretary to JusticeHorace Gray, U.S. Supreme Court in 1892. He practiced law in Boston with the firm of Brandeis, Dunbar, and Nutter from 1893–1900. Then, from 1900–1910 he moved to the Boston firm of Storey, Thorndike, Palmer and Thayer.

In 1910, Thayer was appointed as Dean ofHarvard Law School, succeedingJames Barr Ames, who had died in January of that year. In 1913, he declined an offer to be appointed to theSupreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts.

Suffering from acute depression, he is thought to have committed suicide at the age of 49. After two days of being missing, his body was found in theCharles River.^[2]

Cole Porter, the famous American songwriter, was enrolled inHarvard Law School in 1913. Porter did not take to the study of law. Porter met with Thayer, who was Dean at the time. Thayer suggested that Porter should switch schools and instead enroll at Harvard's music school, which was obviously Porter's true calling. Porter took Thayer's advice and secretly transferred to the music program.^[3]

• List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States (Seat 2)

• "DEAN THAYER A SUICIDE.; Head of Harvard Law School Had Suffered Nervous Breakdown".The New York Times. September 17, 1915.
• "Thayer, Ezra Ripley. Papers, 1882-1915: Finding Aid". Harvard Law School Library.

• 1866 births
• 1915 deaths
• Deans of Harvard Law School
• Harvard Law School alumni
• People from Milton, Massachusetts
• Law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States
• 19th-century American lawyers
• 20th-century American lawyers
• Harvard College alumni

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