He attended school at Vajiravudh College and received education in the United Kingdom.
From the family's holdings, he developed the Ploenchit Arcade shopping centre, and later managed The Regent Bangkok hotel.
He had large collections of art and Buddha amulets, and was a stable-owner, his horses regularly racing at the Pathum Wan and Nang Loeng racecourses.
[1][2] In the 1970s, Sthira became romantically involved with Sansanee Panyasiri, who would later become better known as a mae chi (woman monastic), having renounced worldly life after learning that he was already married.
He supported her spiritual path, and became the benefactor of the meditation centre she founded, Sathira-Dhammasthan.