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William Thon was born in New York City in 1906. He joined the Navy during WWII, and shortly after the war won the Prix de Rome, a fellowship to the American Academy in Rome. He later became a trustee of the Academy. In 1951, Thon received a grant from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He taught painting at Ohio University, and he painted aspects of the Apollo Space Program for the NASA Fine Arts Program.

Thon had no formal art training apart from 30 days at the Art Students League. He discovered his individual style through trial and error. He began painting in oil in a fairly realistic mode, but during his stay at the American Academy in Rome he discovered watercolor as a serious medium and began to loosen his style some. His work became more abstract, although the sources were still recognizable. Perhaps the major breakthrough for his painting came with the discovery of an abandoned quarry near his home in Maine. While still based in nature, these were by far the most abstract of his paintings thus far.

Thon's works can be found in the following public collections:

Farnsworth Art Museum

Portland Museum of Art

Butler Institute of American Art

High Museum of Art Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Smithsonian

Kresge Art Museum Metropolitan Museum of Art Ogunquit Museum of American Robert Hull Fleming Museum University of Vermont

San Diego Museum of Art Sara Roby Foundation Collection Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Spencer Museum of Art University of Kansas

The Arkell Museum at Canajoharie

The Brooklyn Museum of Art The Canton Museum of Art The Columbus Museum of Art-Ohio

The Newark Museum

The Toledo Museum of Art

The University of Michigan Museum of Art

Whitney Museum of American Art