After preparing at the Haverford School, Thor, as we knew him then, majored in biology at Princeton. He wrestled, sang in the Chapel Choir, served on the executive board of Orange Key, and joined Quadrangle. After Princeton he earned both a master’s degree and doctoral degree in biology from Harvard, then took a position in Harvard Medical School’s primate research center, during which time he studied monkeys in Panama, Columbia, and Brazil. In 1967 he married Caroline “Carey” Miller.
Dick joined the Smithsonian Institution as curator of mammals in 1969, serving as chair of the department of vertebrate zoology from 1987 to 1992. In the late 1970s he developed Charcot-Marie-Tooth syndrome, leaving him a quadriplegic, a condition he described as a “nuisance.” Wheelchair-bound, he turned his concentration to squirrels — and with the aid of computers, voice-recognition software, and the unflagging assistance of his wife, Carey — he continued his research until his death. A recipient of numerous awards, perhaps the most singular was the naming of the oldest known fossil squirrel in his honor, Hesperopetes thoringtoni.
Dick noted that once every 40 years a Thorington earned a degree from Princeton: his father in 1919, himself in 1959, and his daughter in 1999.
Dick is survived by Carey, daughters Ellen *99 and Katherine, and two sisters. We have sent condolences.