A Brief History of Thomas Aquinas College
(Winter 2000-2001 Newsletter)
Dr. Ronald McArthur: A Giant Founder at a Giant Founding
 Six-foot,
six-inch U.S. Army private Ron McArthur used to sit around the barracks
and argue with people. Some older men told the young man with a
booming voice that he should be a lawyer - he was vocal, persuasive,
and could probably make a lot of money.
After his tour of service, that's precisely what McArthur decided
he would do. He entered St. Mary's College, Moraga (California),
but a lawyer he did not become. At St. Mary's, he read Plato's Apology,
Socrates' unsuccessful but moving defense against his capital punishment
charge. "It changed my mind," he said. "I saw then
that ideas were important."
Ideas, then, became his life. He finished at St. Mary's with a
Bachelor of Arts degree in 1949, and then attended Laval University
in Quebec, where he studied under the famed Thomist, Charles De
Koninck. McArthur obtained his doctorate in philosophy there in
1952, ever committed to expounding and defending the teachings of
Aristotle and St. Thomas.
He returned to the San Francisco Bay area where he was born and
raised, serving as Associate Professor of Philosophy at the San
Francisco College for Women until 1958. For the next 13 years, he
was Professor of Philosophy at St. Mary's College and later a tutor
in its Integrated Liberal Arts program. He also taught at the University
of San Francisco and the University of Santa Clara.
While at St. Mary's, he formed several close relationships with
other philosophy teachers, Marc Berquist, Jack Neumayr, Frank Ellis,
and Dick George. Moreover, he served as faculty advisor to a student
organization of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute from 1961-63,
whose representative, Peter DeLuca, was McArthur's former student.
These six, plus another colleague whom McArthur met while teaching,
U.S. Army Lt. Colonel Bill Lawton, Jr., were to become the nucleus
of Thomas Aquinas College. They had been discussing the plight of
modern Catholic liberal education and how to remedy it when friends
and colleagues proposed that they found a college to implement their
ideas.
Accordingly, during the summer of 1968, McArthur and Berquist set
about to put into writing a document that would reflect their vision
of Catholic liberal education. Neumayr and another colleague from
St. Mary's, Brother Edmund Dolan, F.S.C, then made revisions to
their draft. In 1969, they published A Proposal for the Fulfillment
of Catholic Liberal Education, the founding document of Thomas
Aquinas College.
Dr. McArthur was named the College's first president in 1970. By
the sheer power of his convictions and personality, he attracted
an impressive array of supporters and brought the College to life.
He recruited faculty members and students, managed scarce funds,
entertained guests, spoke at gatherings, courted benefactors, and
taught courses all across the curriculum from freshmen through senior
year. His wife, Marilyn, as the first lady of the fledgling College,
also offered heroic dedication to the enterprise, cleaning, cooking,
gardening, and preparing for guests and students.
Over the years, McArthur began to see the fruit of his efforts
in the lives of graduates and in their impact on the Church and
society. And he saw the College grow in size and reputation. In
1991, after more than 20 years of devotion to the College, he retired.
Two years later, the Heritage Foundation awarded him the Salvatori
Award for Academic Excellence in Education for "accomplishing
the herculean task of founding a new private college in 1971, dedicated
to the highest standards of teaching and leadership." In 1996,
he gave the Commencement Address at the College and was awarded
its highest honor, the Thomas Aquinas Medallion.
UPDATE: December, 2007
To the great benefit of the whole community, Dr. McArthur has returned
to the College and its classrooms as a tutor. In addition, he remains
active in research and writing, and lectures and leads seminars
around the country. He is also editor of The Aquinas Review,
a scholarly publication of Thomas Aquinas College. He and Marilyn
live in Santa Paula, California, with their friend and 1980 graduate,
Cathy Walsh.
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