Dr. Walter R. Thayer Jr., of Riverside, Dies at 92
Monday, January 10, 2022
Dr. Walter R. Thayer, Jr., 92 of Riverside, died peacefully surrounded by family and loved ones on January 8 at Roberts Health Centre in North Kingstown. He was a life-long resident of Rhode Island.
Dr. Thayer graduated from Tuft’s University Medical School in 1954 and gained prominence as one of the nation’s leading experts on Crohn’s and other gastrointestinal diseases. He served as Chief of Gastroenterology at Brown University Medical School and Head of the Gastroenterology Department at Rhode Island Hospital, where he started a Gastrointestinal Residency Program, in partnership with Brown. He held his positions at both hospitals for 30 years and was also a much-loved and respected professor at Brown Medical School.
Upon his retirement in 2004, he was proud to cut the ribbon at the Walter R. Thayer Inflammatory Bowel Disease Laboratory at Rhode Island Hospital.
As stated by U.S. Senator Lincoln Chaffee, Dr. Thayer has been described as “the father of gastroenterology in Rhode Island, someone who is a masterful teacher and had a great love for his patients.”
Dr. Thayer’s extraordinary professional reputation was, perhaps, eclipsed by his adventurous spirit and it is said that he spent each and every one of his 92 years seeking new ways to test his fortitude … and courage.
His many adventures included surviving a small plane crash in a remote part of Labrador in northern Canada, where he was providing indigenous medical care and delivering babies as part of the Grenfell Mission. He also ran away from a grizzly bear in Alaska (after telling his children never to do such a thing!) and broke a leg while descending Carter Dome on Mount Washington.
However, when it comes to the great outdoors, Walter’s favorite place was Dolly Copp, a campground in the foothills of the White Mountains of New Hampshire. He began visiting as a child with his parents and five younger brothers and sisters and returned many times over the years to find joy and solace while hiking through the woods and up the mountains.
An avid swimmer, Walter swam in all of the Earth’s seven seas and five oceans. Determined to swim in a frozen lake while visiting Sweden, he cut a hole into the ice and jumped in! He also visited six of the world’s seven continents, missing only Australia (to his regret) and he climbed to the top of many mountains throughout North America and Europe.
Walter was a passionate bicycle rider who participated in century (100-mile) bike rides in many areas of the United States. He rode a bike to work throughout most of his life and frequently expressed concern about bike-riding conditions on many of the roads in and around Providence. He is proud to have successfully lobbied for the conversion of an abandoned railroad track into the East Bay Bike Path between Providence and Bristol.
He was also passionate about preservation and wildflowers. He proudly served on a committee to protect and restore the Ponaham Lighthouse in East Providence. And he was an active member of the Rhode Island Wildflower Society, discovering many new types of wildflowers growing in the state over the years. Later in life, he received a degree in Botany from the University of Rhode Island.
A bit of a trickster, Walter frequently attended his children’s birthday parties as “Percival Pickles,” a scary clown who would delight the partygoers with outlandish magic tricks that left them screaming with delight. It wasn’t until years later that his children found the Percival Pickles costume and realized that it had been their father all the time.
As a gastroenterologist, he cherished being known by his family as “The Poop Doctor” and he frequently gifted young family members and patients with the book “Everyone Poops.”
Dr. Thayer was awarded the Distinguished Clinician Award by the American Gastroenterology Association and the Humanitarian of the Year Award by the Rhode Island and New England Chapters of the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America. He was also a recipient of the W.W. Keene Award from the Brown Medical Alumni Association.
Dr. Thayer had a well-deserved reputation as a caring and empathetic doctor to the thousands of patients he treated. He conducted significant research into the root causes of and treatment for Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, seeking remedies to reduce the pain of people suffering from debilitating gastrointestinal maladies.
He proudly trained hundreds of young doctors to excel in the field of gastroenterology with a particular emphasis on the recruitment and support of doctors of color, understanding that the expansion of diversity in this vital field could have a great impact on the treatment of patients across all cultural and ethnic communities.
Following his retirement, Dr. Thayer remained committed to patient care and preparing the next generation of gastroenterologists. He volunteered at the Providence Veterans Affairs Medical Center and as a teacher at Brown Medical School where he was recognized as Teacher of the Year in 2016. He also volunteered at the Rhode Island Hospital clinic and mentored Brown medical students.
During his retirement, Dr. Thayer also found time to engage in his passions for gardening, birding, reading, and political debate. However, his happiest times were spent with his beloved children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
Walter is survived by his daughter, Ida-Marie Thayer Jonsen, her husband, Eric, and their three children, Kaitlyn, Jeremy and Michelle, each of whom provided Walter with one great-grandchild, respectively Walter, Jack and Theo. He is survived by his son, Peter, along with Peter’s wife, Elizabeth, and his daughter Coral. He is also survived by, Brenda Melone, who Walter loved as another daughter. Walter’s beloved son, Walter III, died in 1980.
Walter is survived by his sister, Barbara Thayer Monaghan, and Barbara’s husband David, and by several stepchildren. He is also survived by many nieces and nephews, three of whom went on to become doctors themselves, and three more who are currently in medical school. All of them gained both inspiration and passion from Walter’s long and distinguished career. He was predeceased by his parents, Walter and Esther Thayer, his sisters, Nancy Thayer Meehan and Marilyn Thayer Cote, and his brothers, Alan and Dale Thayer.
Fifty years after he graduated from medical school, Walter’s sister, Barbara, asked him why he chose gastroenterology as a specialty. He remarked that he was so glad that she asked. He explained that in many of the other specialties he had considered, too often people died. As a gastroenterologist, he could help people to live … and to live better.
A memorial service will be held at a future date to be announced.
The family would be most grateful for donations to the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation an organization that Dr. Thayer helped to create and strongly supported.
