James N. Thayer; Lear Siegler Executive, UCLA Benefactor

James N. Thayer, retired chief financial officer of Lear Siegler Inc. and a major supporter of UCLA, has died. He was 67.

Thayer died Thursday of cancer at St. Johns Medical Center in Santa Monica, UCLA announced.

He had been with Santa Monica-based Lear Siegler from 1967 until his retirement in 1987. Then a director of Gibraltar Financial Corp. of Beverly Hills, Thayer was named president and chairman of Gibraltar in 1988.

A UCLA graduate in accounting, Thayer previously worked as an investment analyst with Prudential Insurance Co. and a vice president in investment banking at Glore Forgan, Wm. R. Staats Inc.

Thayer served as president of the UCLA Alumni Assn. from 1982 until 1984, which gave him a concurrent seat on the UC Board of Regents.

A fund-raiser for the university, Thayer also was a philanthropist. He and his wife established the James and Sylvia Thayer Distinguished Scholar awards and endowed an athletic scholarship in the men’s basketball program.

He was president of the Athletics Council and recently chaired the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics Administrative Review Task Force.

In addition to his wife, Sylvia, Thayer is survived by his mother, Hazel Stortz; his children, Scott, Diane and Bradley, and three grandchildren.

The family has asked that memorial contributions be made to the James and Sylvia Thayer Endowed Fund, the UCLA Foundation, 405 Hilgard Ave., Los Angeles 90024.