Horace Rowan Gaither Jr. (1909 – April 7, 1961),[1] was a San Francisco attorney, investment banker, and a powerful administrator at the Ford Foundation.
During World War II, he served as assistant director of the Radiation Laboratory at M.I.T.
In 1948, he helped found the Rand Corporation and served as a trustee until 1959.
From 1959 through his death, Gaither was a general partner and co-founder of Draper, Gaither & Anderson, one of the first venture capital firms on the west coast of the U.S., together with William H. Draper Jr., a retired Army general and Frederick L. Anderson, a retired Air Force general.
He is best remembered today as the author of the controversial 1957 Gaither Report on the vulnerability of American defense.