Dr. Wesley Kirkpatrick

Dean of Studies
History, Philosophy and Senior Tutorial
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Wesley Kirkpatrick is St. Thomas More’s Dean of Studies. He also teaches electives in philosophy and contemporary history and facilitates the annual senior tutorial.

Growing up between Virginia Beach and Portland, Maine, Dr. Kirkpatrick always imagined he’d end up working as a fisherman. “In an important sense that is what I do. John Paul II was fond of encouraging us not to be satisfied with mediocrity. Instead, we are to cast out into the deep and let down our nets for a catch. We are very mindful at the Academy of the varied and enormous challenges that confront young men and women in the 21st century, not least those challenges associated with mediocrity. We are keen to nurture the finest potentials in our students and seed these young men and women into colleges and universities as strong Christian leaders who value the right and the good and aren’t easily confused. This means we’re always reaching deep. Our intellectual and human formation is demanding, searching, and constant. Our students know they are not in an ordinary high school: they are in a Catholic college preparatory academy, and from day one they are invited to embrace all that identity implies. It implies a dynamic, positive and peaceful culture defined by rich scholarly and practical excellence and authentic Christian charity. This is what students find here, and I am fortunate every day to be the Headmaster’s ‘executive officer’ on this ship.”

Dr. Kirkpatrick studied at Notre Dame, where he finished his Ph.D. in 1996. His mentor was the renowned philosopher Alvin Plantinga. “Plantinga schooled me in close and honest thinking and exercised a considerable influence over my own journey to Christianity.” Dr. Kirkpatrick has received awards from the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and in 2007 the Academy’s founder Robert Luddy honored him as “Teacher of Excellence.”