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Our History
The history of the St. Thomas development office can be traced back to 1991, when then Pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle, Fr. Dennis O’Neil hired the first lay principal of the school, Mr. Dan Horn.
Mr. Horn and Fr. Dennis shared the same vision of providing an affordable catholic education for all, especially for parish families. They wanted to be prepared for the future: for example, what if the Los Angeles Archdiocese cut its financial subsidy to the school. Mr. Horn hired Mr. Joe Neeb as the school’s first Director of Development. His job was to go out and establish relationships with donors, foundations and alumni. He went out to tell the story of St. Thomas the Apostle. The story of St. Thomas is one of service, love, community, family, perseverance, opportunity and hope. Together, Mr. Horn and Mr. Neeb, successfully laid the foundation for a scholarship fund and for program support. Thus, St. Thomas Heritage was born. Heritage helped deserving students from needy families attend St. Thomas. Heritage also paved the way for and finance curricular programs such as Fine Arts (Spring Musical), Character Education and Global Studies.
During this time, early plans of a new school campus emerged. The plans were aimed to address the school building’s constant usage from adult classes, church ministries and youth groups and the toll it took on the 80 year old building. The plans also addressed the severe lack of space.
Fr. Dennis O’Neil left St. Thomas in 1999, as well as Mr. Horn. Mr. Vincent O’Donoghue became the new principal and Fr. Jarlath Cunnane was assigned as the new pastor.
St. Thomas Church was heavily damaged in a 1999 fire. This fire and its aftermath crystallized the importance of St. Thomas to the Pico-Union community. The church was rebuilt in 2002. Fr. Jarlath Cunnane oversaw the reconstruction of the church with the help of Mr. Neeb (left St. Thomas in 2003). With this tremendous accomplishment complete and a lunch meeting with donor Paul Westhead, the spark was lit and the formal process began to design and build a new educational campus at St. Thomas the Apostle. A building advisory board was quickly formed and the first donation from John and Dorothy Shea/The Shea Foundation launched the building campaign.
Heritage, now under the direction of Mr. Vincent O’Donoghue, continued to provide scholarship assistance at a steady pace to 85% of our families, despite the precedence of the building campaign and the economic turmoil of late 2000’s. In addition, Heritage continued to help finance curricular programs such as Fine Arts, Sports, Technology, and the new library.
The new educational campus was complete in May of 2010.
Mr. Horn and Fr. Dennis shared the same vision of providing an affordable catholic education for all, especially for parish families. They wanted to be prepared for the future: for example, what if the Los Angeles Archdiocese cut its financial subsidy to the school. Mr. Horn hired Mr. Joe Neeb as the school’s first Director of Development. His job was to go out and establish relationships with donors, foundations and alumni. He went out to tell the story of St. Thomas the Apostle. The story of St. Thomas is one of service, love, community, family, perseverance, opportunity and hope. Together, Mr. Horn and Mr. Neeb, successfully laid the foundation for a scholarship fund and for program support. Thus, St. Thomas Heritage was born. Heritage helped deserving students from needy families attend St. Thomas. Heritage also paved the way for and finance curricular programs such as Fine Arts (Spring Musical), Character Education and Global Studies.
During this time, early plans of a new school campus emerged. The plans were aimed to address the school building’s constant usage from adult classes, church ministries and youth groups and the toll it took on the 80 year old building. The plans also addressed the severe lack of space.
Fr. Dennis O’Neil left St. Thomas in 1999, as well as Mr. Horn. Mr. Vincent O’Donoghue became the new principal and Fr. Jarlath Cunnane was assigned as the new pastor.
St. Thomas Church was heavily damaged in a 1999 fire. This fire and its aftermath crystallized the importance of St. Thomas to the Pico-Union community. The church was rebuilt in 2002. Fr. Jarlath Cunnane oversaw the reconstruction of the church with the help of Mr. Neeb (left St. Thomas in 2003). With this tremendous accomplishment complete and a lunch meeting with donor Paul Westhead, the spark was lit and the formal process began to design and build a new educational campus at St. Thomas the Apostle. A building advisory board was quickly formed and the first donation from John and Dorothy Shea/The Shea Foundation launched the building campaign.
Heritage, now under the direction of Mr. Vincent O’Donoghue, continued to provide scholarship assistance at a steady pace to 85% of our families, despite the precedence of the building campaign and the economic turmoil of late 2000’s. In addition, Heritage continued to help finance curricular programs such as Fine Arts, Sports, Technology, and the new library.
The new educational campus was complete in May of 2010.
