Capitol Hill’s ‘greatest of all circus historians’ remembered

Stuart Thayer, the man struck by a car as he crossed 17th Ave near East Republican last week, has died, a relative tells CHS. Lewis Ames informed us of the sad news in a comment left on the CHS post about the accident involving Thayer and a car driven by an 89-year-old man. We have since removed the post as it included Thayer’s home address. Ames’ note:

Hello CH folks, I live in San Francisco, though raised in Seattle and was a relative and friend of Stuart Thayer, who lived until this week two doors from the corner with his wonderful wife Boyka Thayer. Some of you may now Stuart and Boyka who have lived [on] 17th Ave. East, for over 20 years. Stuart was a published author as a leading U.S. historian of the American Circus, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuart_Thayer. I believe he was 19 years old when he was wounded in the Battle of the Buldge (Dec. 44-Jan. 45) so it would appear he was 85-ish instead of 90 as reported in the PI, Times and SPD blotter. Stuart was one the most remarkably well read, intellectuals one could ever know. He read the NY Times every morning of his adult life, cover to cover; his son is an Art Historian and curator at New Mexico State University. Boyka is an architectual finish-decorator and there home is a veritable art museum and Library of Congress containing major fiction, history, biographies, art and music publications covering the prior several decades. He returned from the hospital to the front and fought through to war’s end in France. He was a legendary historian of his Army unit’s members and war experience and attended their reunion every year for the previous fify or so. Over the years he helped a number of WW II comrades and families trace the history of the unit as it pushed through the war’s conclusion including helping establish, confirm and put to rest the details of how their loved ones perished. His work extended to the German counter parts and he identified the likely unit who led the attack on his tank that wounded him and others. He then was able to find and share his research with the German family who confirmed his researh and that, in turn, the young man who led the unit had perished a few days after the attack Stuart experienced.

You may know that Stuart was a great companion of August Wilson, and has all of the plays with signed inscriptions on his shelf. I last visited Stuart and Boyka in Janunary, and Stuart and I always walked the area a couple of times including the Breakfast-lunch spot he used to meet August every week; he seemed very mindful of crossing carefully. He was a dear, thoughtful, person so highly-conscious of the large picture and our short lives.