Read a message from Ross Thomas, VCS Principal

Ross Thomas, an educational veteran with over 25 years of academic experience in the Pacific Northwest, is the principal of Valley Catholic School. He assumed his duties in 2002 and led Valley Catholic during a special year—the 100th anniversary of the Sisters of St. Mary of Oregon Campus Schools.

Thomas is a graduate of Santa Clara University, with bachelor's and master's degrees in English. After teaching five years in northern California, he joined St. George's School in Spokane in 1980, where he worked for twenty-one years, teaching English and Latin and serving as head of the English department, college counselor, athletic director, and Head of the Middle and Upper Schools.

He also has 44 seasons of head-coaching experience in high-school baseball, basketball and cross-country, during which time his teams won seven Washington State Championships and were six times State runner-up.

A love of teaching and athletics run in his family. His wife, Claudia Kolb Thomas, won two gold medals in swimming at the 1968 Olympics and as its head coach led the Stanford women’s swimming team to a national championship in 1980. She was also Saint George's athletic director for nine years, guiding the school to five Washington All-Sport Championships. Claudia now serves as Director of Admissions at Valley Catholic.

The Thomases have three sons.  Matt lives in Kyoto with his wife, Sachie, and son, Hugh. He teaches history at Ritsumeikan Uji High School.  Mike is in an MAT program at Concordia University in Portland and is a member of Valley Catholic’s baseball and girls’ basketball coaching staffs.  Pat teaches English at Archbishop Murphy High School in Everett, Washington, where he also serves as an assistant baseball and boys’ basketball coach.

Reflecting on his job at Valley, Thomas says, “I belong at a school whose foundation is faithful and hopeful. Much of my own hope, faith, and happiness was given to me by my high school, St. Francis, in Mountain View, California. I’ll be grateful to St. Francis forever and am grateful, also, to be able to work at a school that does for its students what mine did for me.”