Robert Julius Thorne (February 23, 1875 – March 20, 1955) was an American businessman who was president of Montgomery Ward from 1917 to 1920.

[1][2][3] Robert Thorne joined Montgomery Ward's Kansas City, Missouri, branch immediately upon his graduation from Cornell.

In 1917, his older brother and Montgomery Ward president, William C. Thorne, died unexpectedly.

[4] His mother-in-law, Catherine Dietrich Willey, died in the sinking of the luxury ocean liner Lusitania in 1915.

He was accused in mid-1905 of bribing transport company owners to lock out their union workers in order to force them to strike.

Wood later became vice-president and then chairman of Sears, Roebuck and Company, one of Montgomery Ward's fiercest competitors.

[8] For his work in successfully restructuring the Army's supply system and measurably improving America's warfighting capacity during World War I, Thorne was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal in 1919.