Peter Busch Orthwein (born October 28, 1945) is an American heir, businessman and

polo Polo is a ball game played on horseback, a traditional field sport and one of the world's oldest known team sports. The game is played by two opposing teams with the objective of scoring using a long-handled wooden mallet to hit a small hard ...

player. He is the co-founder and chairman of

Thor Industries Thor Industries, Inc. is an American manufacturer of recreational vehicles (RVs). The company sells towable and motorized RVs through its subsidiaries brands including Airstream, Heartland RV, Jayco, Livin Lite RV, and others. The company's head ...

().

Early life

His father was

Adolphus Busch Orthwein Adolphus Busch Orthwein, also known as Dolph Orthwein, (September 2, 1917 - November 25, 2013) was an American heir and business executive. Biography Adolphus Busch Orthwein was born on September 2, 1917, in St. Louis, Missouri. His father was P ...

and his mother, Ann Thornley Metcalfe. His paternal great-great-grandfather was

Adolphus Busch Adolphus Busch (10 July 1839 – 10 October 1913) was the German-born co-founder of Anheuser-Busch with his father-in-law, Eberhard Anheuser. He introduced numerous innovations, building the success of the company in the late 19th and early 20 ...

(1839–1913), the founder of

Anheuser-Busch Anheuser-Busch Companies, LLC is an American brewing company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Since 2008, it has been wholly owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (AB InBev), now the world's largest brewing company, which owns multiple glo ...

.Beverly Miller Is Married To Peter Busch Orthwein
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', May 10, 1987 He has five brothers: Adolphus B. Orthwein II,

Stephen A. Orthwein Stephen A. Orthwein (October 28, 1945 – March 11, 2018) was an American heir and polo player. Early life He is a great-great-grandson of Adolphus Busch, founder of the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Company. He received the association's Hugo Dalmar ...

, David Orthwein, Christopher Orthwein, and Michael Montgomery.Horace A. Laffaye, ''Polo in the United States: A History'', Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2011, pp. 207-208'Westport Ceremony Joins Haas-Orthwein', ''Palm Beach Daily News'', December 31, 197

/ref> He was educated at

Choate Rosemary Hall Choate Rosemary Hall (often known as Choate; ) is a private, co-educational, college-preparatory boarding school in Wallingford, Connecticut, United States. Choate is currently ranked as the second best boarding school and third best private high ...

, a boarding-school in

Wallingford, Connecticut Wallingford is a town in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, centrally located between New Haven and Hartford, and Boston and New York City. The population was 44,396 at the 2020 census. The community was named after Wallingford, in En ...

.'Susan Haas To Marry', ''

Palm Beach Daily News The ''Palm Beach Daily News'' is a newspaper serving the town of Palm Beach in Palm Beach County in South Florida. It is also known as "The Shiny Sheet" because of its heavy, slick newsprint stock. It was founded in 1897 as the ''Lake Worth Dail ...

'', November 09, 197

/ref> He graduated from

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

Ithaca, New York Ithaca is a city in the Finger Lakes region of New York, United States. Situated on the southern shore of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca is the seat of Tompkins County and the largest community in the Ithaca metropolitan statistical area. It is named a ...

in 1968, where he was the captain on the polo team and a member of

Quill and Dagger Quill and Dagger is a senior honor society at Cornell University. It is often recognized as one of the most prominent societies of its type, along with Skull and Bones and Scroll and Key at Yale University. In 1929, ''The New York Times'' stated t ...

.Horace A. Laffaye, ''Polo in the United States: A History'', Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2011, pp. 168-169 He went on to receive a Masters in Business Administration degree from Cornell in 1969.Laura McGrath
Paying It Forward
''Cornell Enterprise Online'', January 2012

Business career

He started his career at

Bankers Trust Bankers Trust was a historic American banking organization. The bank merged with Alex. Brown & Sons in 1997 before being acquired by Deutsche Bank in 1999. Deutsche Bank sold the Trust and Custody division of Bankers Trust to State Street Corpor ...

, and later worked for

Gould Electronics Gould Electronics Inc. was a manufacturer of electronics and batteries that branched into other fields before being partially absorbed in 1988 by Nippon Mining (now JX Holdings) and closed by them in 2014. History Gould was founded in 1928 a ...

. In 1980, together with Wade F. B. Thompson, he co-founded

, an American manufacturer of recreational vehicles and mid-sized commercial buses.Thor Industries: Management Team
/ref>Forbes: Peter Orthwein
/ref>Bloomberg BusinessWeek: Peter B. Orthwein
/ref> It became a public company in 1984, and it joined the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed c ...

in 1986. He served as its chairman from 1980 to 1986, vice chairman from 1986 to November 2009 and treasurer from 1980 to November 2009. He then served as its president from 2009 to 2012. Additionally, since November 2009, he has served as its chairman and chief executive officer. On August 1, 2013, he stepped down as CEO but remained chairman. He also served as chairman and CEO of Dutchmen Manufacturing from November 2009 to August 1, 2013.

Polo

In 1969, he played on the Plainsmen team with his brother Stephen, John Armstrong and Charles Armstrong. That year, they came second at the finals of the Royal Windsor Cup at the

Guards Polo Club The Guards Polo Club is an English polo club in Windsor, Berkshire. It was most closely associated with the British Royal Family. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh was President of the club from its formation on 25 January 1955 until his death i ...

, losing to the Lushill team (Captain Frederick Barker, Howard Hipwood, Peter Perkins, and Peter Gifford). They also lost in the semifinals of the Gold Cup at the

Cowdray Park Polo Club Cowdray may refer to: *Cowdray House, the ruins of one of England's great houses, outside the West Sussex town of Midhurst * Cowdray Park, Gauteng, suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa *Cowdray Park, West Sussex, country house at the centre of the ...

Cowdray Park, West Sussex Cowdray Park is a country house at the centre of the Cowdray Estate in Midhurst, West Sussex. The park lies in the South Downs National Park. The estate belongs to Viscount Cowdray, whose family have owned it since 1909. It has a golf course, an ...

against the Windsor Park team (Lord Patrick Beresford, his brother

John Beresford, 8th Marquess of Waterford John Hubert de la Poer Beresford, 8th Marquess of Waterford (14 July 1933 – 11 February 2015) was an Irish peer. He succeeded to the marquessate in 1934. He was educated at Eton, and later served as a lieutenant in the Royal Horse Guards' Supple ...

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh (born Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark, later Philip Mountbatten; 10 June 1921 – 9 April 2021) was the husband of Queen Elizabeth II. As such, he served as the consort of the British monarch from El ...

and Paul Withers). He is a player in residence at the

Greenwich Polo Club Greenwich Polo Club is a polo club and event venue in Greenwich, Connecticut that was established in 1981. It is one of only three polo venues in the United States offering high-goal polo (20 goals or above). The club hosts high goal polo matches ...

Greenwich, Connecticut Greenwich (, ) is a New England town, town in southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the town had a total population of 63,518. The largest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast (Conne ...

. In 2015,

Peter M. Brant Peter Mark Brant Sr. (born March 1, 1947) is an American industrialist, as well as a magazine publisher, film producer, and art collector. He is married to model Stephanie Seymour. Early life and education Brant was raised in Jamaica Estates, ...

honored Orthwein by naming one of the polo fields at the Greenwich Polo Club in his honor.

Philanthropy

He has endowed the Peter B. Orthwein '69 Head Coach of Polo, the Class of 1969 Scholarship (in honor of Professor Jerry Hass) and the Peter B. Orthwein 1968 Sesquicentennial Fellowship in Accounting at his alma mater, Cornell University.

Personal life

On December 30, 1972, he married Susan Marston Haas, the daughter of George Haas, Jr. (1920-2006) of the Haas Financial Corporation, at the Christ & Holy Trinity Church in

Westport, Connecticut Westport is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, along the Long Island Sound within Connecticut's Gold Coast. It is northeast of New York City. The town had a population of 27,141 according to the 2020 U.S. Census. History ...

.'Orthwein-Haas', ''

The Chronicle of the Horse ''The Chronicle of the Horse'' is an American weekly equestrian magazine.Mary Fishback, ''Northern Virginia's Equestrian Heritage'', Arcadia Publishing, 200/ref> It covers dressage, hunters and jumpers, eventing, foxhunting and steeplechase racin ...

'', Volume 36, Issues 1-13, p. 7

/ref> The reception was at the Fairfield County Hunt Club. On May 9, 1987, he married Beverly Miller, a paintings appraiser at

Sotheby's Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, and ...

, at the

Church of the Heavenly Rest The Church of the Heavenly Rest is an Episcopal church located on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 90th Street, opposite Central Park and the Carnegie Mansion, on the Upper East Side of New York City. The church is noted for the architecture of it ...

on the

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street to the south, and Central Park/Fifth Avenue to the wes ...

in New York City. His son, Peter Busch Orthwein, Jr., received an M.B.A. from Cornell University in 2003.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Orthwein, Peter Busch 1940s births Year of birth missing (living people) Living people People from Greenwich, Connecticut Choate Rosemary Hall alumni Cornell University alumni American chief executives American philanthropists American polo players Busch family American people of German descent Orthwein business family