His parents were Cincinnati, Ohio mayor Charles Phelps Taft II and Eleanor Chase Taft, whose father ran the Waterbury Clock Company.
Taft had five sisters and one brother and grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio.
In 1982, Taft sought the Republican nomination for governor of Ohio, but he lost the primary race to Clarence J.
Seth Taft served as Cuyahoga County Commissioner from 1971 to 1978.
He died on April 14, 2013, at his home in Pepper Pike, Ohio, after a fall at 90 years old.