Michael Thacher

Michael W. Thacher served as General Manager, Public Relations & Communications, for Unocal, a global energy company, from 1995 until it merged with Chevron in 2005. In this position, he was responsible for corporate media relations, employee communications, and executive presentations, as well as key financial and business marketing communications. Thacher received a BA in philosophy from The George Washington University in 1970 and an MBA from UCLA in 1983. 

Thacher began his communications career in 1973, going on to serve as Editor of Western Foodservice magazine, Managing Editor of Human Behavior magazine, and Editorial Director of Pharmaceutical Technology publications. In 1981, he joined Atlantic Richfield (ARCO) as Manager of Editorial Services. From 1984 to 1985, Thacher was Manager of Corporate Communications at Northrop Corp. 

As a professional writer, Thacher has contributed science-related opinion pieces, news stories, and book reviews to a wide variety of daily papers and periodicals, including the Los Angeles Times, the Christian Science Monitor, and Astronomy magazine. 

Thacher collects original signed documents and ephemera of select individuals and institutions. He donated his extensive collection of signed letters, sketches and other documents by artist Norman Rockwell to the Norman Rockwell Museum in 2019. He donated his collection of original letters, press photos and other ephemera of philosopher Bertrand Russell to the Bertrand Russell Archives at McMaster University in 2025. Also in 2025, he donated his collection of letters and historic materials related to 16 Mountain Wilson Observatory and its astronomers to the Huntington Library and Gardens in San Marino, California.

Currently, Thacher serves on the Board of Advisors of both UCLA’s Division of Physical Sciences and Department of Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences. At UCLA, he has created a collection endowment for astronomy and the planetary sciences within the science library, helped acquire computer servers and field instrumentation for earth sciences, supports a cloud-seeding study in atmospheric sciences and enables a summer fellowship for a doctoral student in astronomy. 

Thacher is a member of the National Council for Arts and Sciences at The George Washington University, where he sponsors a student fellowship in philosophy and endowed scholarships in the engineering school, the school of international affairs, and the college of arts and sciences. Also at GWU, he supports an annual prize in data science and an outstanding publication award in the Space Policy Institute. He funds an annual postdoc research award in astronomy for the Carnegie Observatories and has established an endowed fund in Marine Science at Cal Poly Humboldt. Thacher is a former member of the Board of Trustees of the Mount Wilson Institute. Since 2004, he has conducted public tours and educational outreach for Mount Wilson Observatory near Pasadena, California