And while Thorpe says Harvard was well worth the wait, at the end of his sophomore year he took a leave of absence and returned to Pennsylvania. There he joined the local Teamsters union and worked at a truck terminal.
In 1979, Thorpe found himself working near Three Mile Island, which that year was the site of one of the worst nuclear disasters in the nation's history. The area was devastated, and Thorpe says he was "quite happy" to return to Cambridge for his junior year.
But nine months later, he was again restless. He took his second leave of absence. For the moment, he says, he had learned enough.
"It just felt like I was at a point where my education was very satisfying," Thorpe says.
Now one of his passions is maintaining Twirly Top--a summer-months-only restaurant that was built in the mid-1950s.
"It's a real piece of roadside America, which today is mostly vanished," he says.
He became involved with Twirly Top while he was working as a self-employed timber contractor, not long after his departure from Cambridge. It was there that he met Linda Sedell, now his fiancee, at the drive-in window.
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