Obituary : Thaw Malin Jr.
Thaw Malin Jr. died peacefully at home on Saturday evening, Sept.13, at age 91 in Dallas, Texas. An only child, he was born on Easter Sunday, April 8, 1917, in Philadelphia and moved to New York City when he was six. He attended the Allen Stevenson School and was awarded the Headmaster's Cup in eighth grade. His father died when he was 10 and he was brought up by his mother, Jane Hone Malin and her mother, Jane Lewis, the granddaughter of Commodore Matthew C. Perry. Noting that Thaw could benefit from a male environment, a relative, Bishop Perry, suggested that he attend the Kent School where Father Sill, his friend, was headmaster.
Thaw entered Kent in the fall of 1932 and graduated in 1935 cum laude. He went on to Yale, graduating in 1939 with a degree in architecture. He entered the war in 1942. After meeting a Kent friend by chance one day in Washington, he was soon transferred to military intelligence stationed in the Pentagon. As part of his many duties, he had to learn to play bridge with the generals when they needed a fourth. His work in and out of the Map Room was "Ultra-Ultra Top Secret".
Thaw was introduced to Isabel Kruger in Morristown, N.J., by Bishop Paul Moore Jr.'s mother, a mutual friend of both families. In 1945 the Kruger and Malin families vacationed together on Martha's Vineyard and Thaw proposed to Isabel "on a walk through a field near a lighthouse." They were married in 1947 and returned in 1949 to the Vineyard with the first of their five sons, Thaw III. On and off for the next 40 years they vacationed with their boys on Martha's Vineyard. They would stay with Thaw's cousin, Jean Perry Behr, in Edgartown, before building their own vacation house in town on Dunham Road in the 1960s.
Thaw was an active real estate broker serving New Jersey and surrounding states for over 50 years. He referred to himself as "a country boy," evidenced by his specializing in the sale of large tracts of land, horse farms, and wineries. On many a Sunday afternoon, when he was not home gardening or baking bread, he could be found following the Tewksbury Foot Basset hounds across the countryside with his sons trailing along behind him.
He was a loving father and husband as well as an active conservationist who wrote numerous letters to legislators, governors, and presidents to educate them on the issues of the day. His perspective, warmth, and humor was also expressed in "Jottings...", his weekly column published in the Bernardsville, N.J. Observer-Tribune for over 25 years.
Survivors include his wife Isabel, his five sons: Thaw lll and his wife, Karen English-Malin, of Cresson, Texas, and Martha's Vineyard, Peter and his wife, Amy, of Dallas, Texas, George and wife, Nancy, of Boston and Chester, Vt., John and his wife, Peggy, Prosser of Richardson, Texas, and David of Ridgeway, Colo.; 10 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. He will be greatly missed by all his friends and family.
Thaw Malin Jr. was an active and founding member of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, which began in 1955. In lieu of flowers his family is asking that any donations be given in his memory to the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, Bamboo Brook, 170 Longview Road, Far Hills, NJ 07931. A memorial service will be held at St. Peter's Church in Morristown, N.J. at 3 pm on Oct. 4.
