Taft was born on September 8, 1889 in Cincinnati, Ohio. He studied at Taft School, at Yale University and at the Harvard Law School. Taft was married to Martha Wheaton Bowers from 1914 until his death in 1953. They had four sons. Taft died on July 31, 1953 in a hospital in New York City, New York from a cerebral hemorrhage, aged 63.