Obama's Italian rep: Kerry's old friend

by Mark Silva

In the diplomatic trade, the hardship embassies go to career diplomats.

The posh posts often go to the privileged and campaign contributors.

So it goes in Rome, where the American ambassador resides in a gardened villa the envy of anyone in the business.

President Barack Obama today nominated David Thorne, a longtime close friend of Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, the Democratic Party's 2004 presidential nominee, and twin brother of Kerry's first wife, to serve as the American ambassador to the Italian Republic and Republic of San Marino.

Thorne, born of a wealthy Boston family and cofounder of a mutual fund investment firm, was only a modest campaign contributor for the Obama campaign, though a faithful donor to the campaigns of his longtime friend, Kerry. The two played soccer together at Yale, were members of Skull and Bones, traveled to Europe and went off to war in Vietnam together.

The two Navy veterans wrote the book, The New Soldier, in 1971 - about American veterans disaffected with the war in Vietnam.

Thorne came from a ``rock-ribbed Republican family,'' Kerry's family Democratic. One summer, the two college students toured Europe together.

"They developed a passion for soccer, enabling both to make Yale's varsity team,'' as the Boston Globe has reported. They both dated Janet Auchincloss, half-sister of Jacqueline Kennedy, at the same time, though their friendship survived.

In the summer of 1963, the Globe has reported, Julia Thorne was at her family's estate on Long Island, when Kerry, a Yale classmate of her twin brother, David, arrived for a visit. She was singing Peter, Paul, and Mary's Five Hundred Miles. He was smitten. They married in 1970.

David Thorne was one of four in Kerry's circle who went to Vietnam: Kerry, Thorne, Richard Pershing, who died there, and Fred Smith, who later founded Federal Express.

"All four could have used their connections to avoid or at least delay military service,'' the Globe reported. "But Pershing set the tone. ``When a war comes along, you go,'' said the grandson of a fabled general.

Kerry and Julia Thorne divorced in 1988. She moved to Wyoming and became active in environmental causes. married Richard Charlesworth in 1997, and moved to Montana. She died of cancer in 2006.

Kerry had remarried, with Teresa Heinz, widow of Pennsylvania Sen. John Heinz, ketchup magnate.

David Thorne is a co-founder of Adviser Investments, "one of the nation's most highly regarded firms specializing in Vanguard and Fidelity mutual funds and electronically traded funds,'' the White House says.

He also was publisher of The Rome Daily American, "one of the most successful English language newspapers serving Southern Europe.''

He recently sold his publishing business to Martha Stewart Omnimedia.

Thorne graduated from Yale in 1966 with a BA in American History and received a Master's degree in journalism from Columbia University in 1971. He served in the Navy from 1966-1970 and is credited as the editor of the book that Kerry wrote, The New Soldier, in 1971.