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On a Wednesday night nearly 30 years ago — March 6, 1996 — students at ����AV packed into St. Joseph Commons to listen to Dr. Ronald P. McArthur, the retired founding president of the College, speak about Catholic liberal education. Last Wednesday night, some 28 years later and 13 days after the anniversary of Dr. McArthur’s death, a new generation of students on the California campus came to St. Cecilia Hall’s Fritz B. Burns Auditorium to watch a video of that same talk.

It is a yearly custom at the College, around the anniversary of Dr. McArthur’s death, to show a video of one of the many informal, extemporaneous addresses that he frequently gave to the student body during his lifetime. Dr. Tom Kaiser (’75), tutor and a member of the College’s first graduating class, introduced the video by sharing some of his own memories of Dr. McArthur’s many impromptu presentations. 

“Every once and a while, when the students needed a pep talk, he would get up and give us a talk,” recalled Dr. Kaiser. “He’d get up at lunch and go, ‘Look,’ and just explain to us why we’re here and why what we’re doing is important. I don’t think we’ve ever had a better spokesman who can get the students reinvigorated and excited about their studies.”

Though most of the present student body never had the opportunity to meet Dr. McArthur before he passed away in 2013, they saw his love for the College and its students and his passion for truth vividly on display as they watched and listened to him speak on video. In addressing past and present TAC students, Dr. McArthur stressed the importance of the kind of community that the College offers: one brought together by a common love for truth, seeking God through a classical, Catholic education in the liberal arts. 

“All education ought to contribute finally to our seeing God. That’s really what education is about, what education ought to be about,” Dr. McArthur reminded his audience. He urged students to pursue the truth in spite of what the world might say, remembering the great blessing they have in the TAC community to help guide them along that path. “I simply say to you that, through the providence of God, you’re here, and through the providence of God, you’re able to participate in this community.”

Those who came last Wednesday to watch the video were touched and encouraged by Dr. McArthur’s words. “I was really struck by an analogy he made about cultivating soil,” reflected student John Paul Sommer (’27), “and how TAC is the best place to till the soil of our minds.”