The family fortune derived from the company founded by Edwin's grandfather (in 1852), later owned by his uncle, John Boyd Thacher.
[8] Thacher was a school friend of Wilson, and battled his whole life with alcoholism, frequently landing in mental hospitals or jail.
After one bender, three members of The Oxford Group, Rowland Hazard, F. Shepard Cornell, and Cebra Graves, convinced the court to parole Thacher into their custody.
Wilson stayed sober and eventually formed Alcoholics Anonymous with Bob Smith while Thacher soon returned to drinking.
Thacher was the assistant director of High Watch Recovery Center in Kent, Connecticut in the summers of 1946 and 1947, during which time he remained sober.
Thacher was portrayed by Adam Reid in the TV movie When Love Is Not Enough: The Lois Wilson Story (2010), which dramatized the founding of Al-Anon.