Robert Hooper Thawley, a retired Peterson, Howell & Heather executive and World War II naval officer, died June 30 from complications of Parkinson's disease at the Blakehurst retirement community in Towson. He was 88.
Mr. Thawley, the son of a lawyer and a homemaker, was born and raised in Denton, where he graduated in 1939 from Caroline High School.
After earning a degree in economics in 1943 from Washington College, where he had been a member of the Navy Reserve, Mr. Thawley was commissioned an ensign.
He served with amphibious forces in the Pacific Theater of operations aboard the transport USS Rixey, until being discharged in 1946 with the rank of lieutenant.
Mr. Thawley attended law school for a year at the University of Maryland and later studied accounting from 1958 to 1961 at Johns Hopkins' McCoy College.
Mr. Thawley began his business career as a Montgomery Ward & Co. management trainee in Baltimore.
After working for the retailer in Chicago and Albany, N.Y., he returned to Baltimore in 1957 and went to work for Peterson, Howell & Heather, a fleet leasing company.
He was assistant controller and assistant treasurer until 1961, when he was promoted to account manager in the client services department. He was appointed manager of leasing services in 1965 and a year later, regional sales manager.
In 1966, he transferred to PHH's Canadian division in Montreal, where he was vice president and general manager. He returned to Baltimore and retired in 1975.
The longtime Lutherville resident was an active member and former president of the Eastern Shore Society of Baltimore. He also had been president of the Washington College Alumni Association.
Mr. Thawley had been a season-ticket holder to the Baltimore Colts and enjoyed spending summers at his condominium at the Henlopen in Rehoboth Beach, Del.
Mr. Thawley's wife of 50 years, the former Ellen Edwards, died in 1994.
He was a member for 55 years of Hunt's United Methodist Church in Riderwood, where he had been chairman of its administrative board and business manager of its finance committee.
Funeral services were held at his church Saturday.
Surviving are his wife of 14 years, the former Elizabeth "Libby" Howard; a daughter, Ellen T. Madden of Towson; a brother, Wesley E. Thawley Jr. of Wilmington, Del.; and many nieces and nephews.