In Memoriam: Thatcher Stone ’82, Aviation Lawyer, Lecturer and Philanthropist

Thatcher A. Stone, a 1982 graduate of the College of Virginia University of Regulation and a 1978 graduate of the College, died at age 67 on Nov. 29 though traveling in Israel. He leaves a long lasting legacy at his alma mater, where by he also taught aviation regulation and produced substantial advancement presents.

For 32 several years just after graduating from UVA Legislation, Stone practiced regulation on Wall Avenue in the parts of finance, banking and asset-primarily based lending, with an emphasis on secured funding related to intercontinental jet aircraft. He encouraged the Export-Import Lender of the United States for 25 a long time on loans for overseas plane prospective buyers and, right after the 9/11 attacks on the Entire world Trade Middle, he advised EXIM and the White Household on world war danger insurance coverage challenges arising from the attacks.

The Thatcher A. Stone Backyard was committed in 2010 soon after Stone pledged a generous donation to the Legislation School in 2009. The Philip M. Stone Dining Room, dedicated in 2002, was named for his father, who died when Thatcher was a boy or girl.

The Lillian Stone Distinguished Lecture, which is hosted jointly by the Regulation College and the College of Architecture, was named for his mother. Lillian Kolodiz Stone, who died in 2013, was the very first woman chemical engineering graduate of Northeastern University and served as main of environmental undertaking critique at the U.S. Department of the Inside for 25 yrs.

Stone was born in Massachusetts and grew up primarily in Washington, D.C., just before attending boarding faculty at Northfield Mount Hermon in northern Massachusetts. He has a single daughter, Rebecca Stone.

In 2004, Stone designed headlines — and new lawful precedent — when he successfully sued Continental Airlines after receiving bumped from a flight without the need of appropriate compensation.

Afterwards, in the aftermath of another passenger getting dragged off a United flight in 2018 for the reason that the airline wished to bump him involuntarily, Stone wrote in a CNN.com op-ed, “Unfortunately, this is a standard sport all of the airways participate in. They get started presenting payment and journey that is a lot less than what is essential beneath the FAA rule hoping that persons who have not been effectively informed about their rights will get the inexpensive provide. … [T]o fulfill their section of the bargain, airways want to abide by the rules and take care of passengers who get bumped fairly.”

In 2013, he relocated his solo practice from New York to Charlottesville. He started Stone & Woodrow in 2015, incorporating passenger litigation and own injury to his company and aircraft transaction portfolio.

He retired from the business in May possibly but remained of counsel, according to his business bio.

Thatcher A. Stone ’82, pictured in 1988, attends a Law School Foundation Board of Trustees and Alumni Council Evening meal. Courtesy UVA Law Archives

His motivation to Charlottesville and UVA preceded his regulation firm’s transfer, on the other hand. He began training aviation regulation at the Regulation Faculty in 2005, served on the Legislation School’s Alumni Council and at a single position chaired the collection committee for Jefferson Regulation Fellows. He also served on two nonprofit boards in Charlottesville, together with UVA’s Fralin Museum of Art.

His closest buddy, Frank Kittredge Jr., a 1978 graduate of UVA’s School of Architecture, worked with Stone on two facet-business enterprise possibilities, which include one particular they turned into a philanthropic have confidence in committed to supporting UVA. (Kittredge is the former chair of the UVA Faculty of Architecture Foundation Board, on which Stone also served.)

In addition to funding the Stone Backyard, Stone Dining Place and the Stone lecture, the have confidence in endowed the Clay Thomas Memorial Scholarship, memorializing a faculty pal of Stone and Kittredge’s. The have faith in has also provided pledges and items to fund the Kolodiz directorship of the Jewish Scientific tests Program in the Higher education of Arts & Sciences and the Rachel Winer Manin interdisciplinary graduate fellowship in Jewish Experiments.

In his spare time, Thatcher loved skiing, sailing and piloting airplanes, a interest he took up for the duration of his undergraduate several years at UVA. Later in everyday living, he owned two single-engine plane of his have.

In excess of the years, Kittredge flew as Stone’s passenger up and down the East Coastline, and they also took 50 {0b5b04b8d3ad800b67772b3dcc20e35ebfd293e6e83c1a657928cfb52b561f97} a dozen ski excursions together to Switzerland and France, Kittredge claimed.

“He was passionate about aviation, which is why he taught aviation legislation at the Law University,” Kittredge reported. “He loved sailing, he liked snowboarding and he beloved supporting the University.”

When the Stone Dining Area was committed in 2002, then-Dean John C. Jeffries Jr. ’73 shared this anecdote about Thatcher Stone’s longstanding romantic relationship with UVA Legislation and North Grounds, courting all the way again to his undergraduate many years when he drove the College bus line’s North Grounds route. One particular night, on a date with his girlfriend at Court docket Square Tavern, he explained to her he would like to go to the Legislation University and “make his mark” by way of the law. She predicted that the only mark he would go away at the Regulation Faculty would be rubber tire marks from turning the bus in the circle in front of the university.

“She was rather improper,” Jeffries said in latest remarks. “Thatcher did make his mark in the Legislation and remaining his mark on the Regulation College, which benefited tremendously from his management and generosity.”

A memorial provider for a celebration of Stone’s everyday living will be held at the University in June for the duration of his 45th university reunion.

Law Faculty Foundation President and CEO Luis Alvarez Jr. ’88 stated Stone “was a great and distinctive close friend of the Law Faculty, loyal to his classmates and a tireless promoter of our efforts.”

“He was by no means without the need of his UVA cap or tie, and usually led with his heart,” Alvarez stated. “I communicate for all who realized Thatcher in indicating he was just one of a form and will be missed.”