SANTA PAULA : College Founder and President to Retire
Ronald P. McArthur, a founder of Thomas Aquinas College near Santa Paula and the school’s first president, will retire in January after 20 years at the college. Thomas E. Dillon, currently dean of the college, has been selected by the college’s board of governors to replace McArthur as president.
McArthur is a proponent of higher education through the study of the great books of Western civilization, such as the writings of Aristotle and Plato in the field of philosophy, St. Thomas Aquinas in theology and Euclid in mathematics.
During McArthur’s tenure, the school has grown from 33 students in 1971 to 196 students.
McArthur said the college is “growing and developing apace, and by keeping true to its best instincts, it will continue to fulfill its purpose.”
Dillon, who holds a doctoral degree in philosophy from the University of Notre Dame, said he would “maintain the college as the unique and excellent institution of Catholic liberal learning that it is.”
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