Dorothy Thoms Pinkerton; Educator, Rancher

Dorothy Thoms Pinkerton, a longtime Ventura County educator and matriarch of a well-known Santa Paula ranching family, died Monday after a short illness. She was 89.

A native Californian, she was born in Olinda on Nov. 14, 1907, and moved to Santa Paula to be with her parents after graduating from Occidental College in 1930. Her father, Clifford Thoms, was in charge of all Ventura County oil fields for the state of California.

Her first job was teaching eighth grade at Isbell School. After teaching for four years, her interest in public health led her to a scholarship at the Yale University School of Nursing. However, her hopes for a degree in public health were cut short when she contracted rheumatic fever.

She returned to Santa Paula and recuperated, and in 1937 earned an educational administration degree from Stanford University. She became principal of Lincoln School in Ventura and soon after met her husband, Robert, a second-generation rancher.

After the couple married, she gave up her administrative post to start a family on the Santa Paula ranch. She taught elementary grades at McKevett School in Santa Paula and later took over as the principal of Ventura Street School.

When the post-World War II baby boom hit Santa Paula’s schools, two new schools were built, one on the east end of town and one on the west. She became principal of West Side School, but her first order of business was to find a better name for the school, eventually named Glen City School.

As the student population continued to grow, Pinkerton found herself the principal of two schools: Glen City and the newly constructed Blanchard Elementary School.

After three years, at Pinkerton’s suggestion, the school board appointed another principal to Blanchard. Pinkerton remained principal of Glen City until her retirement in 1973.

“She was truly caring about the education of the children,” her son Dan, himself a Santa Paula citrus and avocado rancher, said Wednesday. “And I can’t remember one time where she ever lost her temper . . . sharp as a tack right up to the end.”

Her husband passed away in 1990. She lived on the family ranch with her two sons, Robert and Dan, and their families. She is also survived by four grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Private services were held by the family.

It is the family’s request that remembrances be made to Santa Paula Hospital.