While attending the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Thone served as the pledge president of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity.

During his tenure in Congress, he served as assistant minority whip, and as a member of the House Select Committee on Assassinations.

He chaired the Old West Economic Development Commission from 1981 to 1982, and the Agricultural Committee of the President's Export Council from 1982 to 1985.

In the 1992 presidential election, he cast one of the state's five electoral votes for President George H. W. Bush.

[5] After retiring from public life, he practiced law in the Lincoln, Nebraska office of Erickson and Sederstrom.