Nathaniel Thayer '71 died at his home, 22 Fairfield street, Boston, yesterday morning after an illness of nearly two years. For many years Mr. Thayer was prominent in railroad and financial circles, national as well as local.

Nathaniel Thayer, a descendant of the family which in 1630 settled at Braintree, was born in Boston, June 13, 1851. After graduating from Harvard in 1871 he travelled abroad for two years, returning in 1874 to associate in business with his father, who five years previously had given Thayer Hall to the College. He was made president of the Boston, Clinton and Fitchburg Railroad Company in 1876 and since then has been the guiding power in numerous banks, railroads and business concerns. He was also a member of the Corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1877 and again in 1879 he was a Democratic candidate for the legislature.