By Christine Imb
Just outside the entrance to Logos School in Olivette is a sign that
reads, “Logos Saves Lives.” It’s a
simple, yet dramatic statement, and it’s one CEO Dr. David Thomas stands solidly
behind. That’s because he believes every child can succeed—and that’s “every” with a capital E*V*E*R*Y.
“I’m very emphatic about that,” he says. “I don’t care whether they’re going to school in St. Louis County, St. Louis City, or if they’re attending here. Every child can succeed. But to do so, there has to be professionals who will find a way to help them. At Logos we’ve created a culture where we’re totally focused on and committed to the students. And we will find the way.”
Logos is a private, therapeutic, alternative school serving at-risk middle and high school students. For the most part, students enrolled at Logos have been unsuccessful in a traditional school setting due to struggles with depression, ADHD, bipolar disorder, Asperger’s syndrome, anxiety, behavioral problems, lack of motivation, etc. These students require more academic, emotional, and social support than many of their peers. At Logos, there are two types of success for students: mainstreaming and a high school diploma. Mainstreaming is when a student has done well enough to go back to the school of their choice. Between 60 and 75 Logos students mainstream each year, and the graduating class of Logos averages at about 32 every year, with between 92 to 95 percent of graduates going to pursue post-secondary education.
“We’ve had an individual score a perfect 36 on her ACT,” Thomas comments. “So they can succeed. All they really need is the ability to believe that they can.”
Thomas is speaking from personal experience. As a high school student living on a dairy farm in southwest Missouri, he played both basketball and baseball proficiently. In his junior year he received pro-offers to play both sports. But a serious injury his senior year brought a quick end to any hope of a pro-athletic career.
“I was playing baseball. It was the sixth inning and I was the lead-off batter,” he recalls. “Now back then the helmets were just like caps. They didn’t come down over the ears. The pitcher threw a ball that ripped mine off and hit me in the left temple, knocking me unconscious.”
Local doctors said it was just a concussion and that he’d be fine in a few days. That was on Friday. By Saturday he was in a coma in a Springfield hospital undergoing brain surgery to relieve the pressure. He lost three-quarters of his eyesight due to a pinched optic nerve and ended up in a rehabilitation center in Little Rock, Ark., learning to read Brail and to use a cane.
“I kept asking, why did this happen to me,” he says. “But as I watched other individuals there who were blind since birth learning to cook, iron and just take care of themselves, I realized I wasn’t as bad off as I thought.”
Thomas was in rehabilitation for five months during which time he regained his confidence. Then after spending a year working at a small radio station, he enrolled at the University of Missouri-Columbia, something his doctor advised him against.
“My surgeon said I couldn’t do it,” Thomas says. “But using a reader service, books-on-tape and Brail I managed a 3.1 grade point average my first semester. My second semester I took history which required a lot of reading. After that my surgeon said, ‘It doesn’t matter what I say. You’re so hard-headed, you’ll just try it anyway.’”
Thomas didn’t just try, he succeeded. While in college he gained some political experience chairing three national committees for Nixon, and Agnew in 1968. He turned down an opportunity in 1972 to work on the Committee to Re-Elect the President. As it turned out, it was a pretty good decision.
“My superintendent at the time likes to say that had I taken this position I would
have been right up there with Ehrlichman, Haldeman and Dean,” Thomas says smiling. “Well, I didn’t, and boy am I glad.”
After graduating, Thomas went to work for Eli Lilly in Indianapolis, where he gained further political experience helping then Mayor Richard Lugar—now a U.S. Senator—develop a program for returning Vietnam veterans. He then worked for a year with Columbia Public Schools as Chairman of the Vocational Agriculture Department before becoming Vice President of Member Relations for Missouri Farmers Association.
“I learned a great deal about marketing while working here,” Thomas says. “And we were very involved in policy-making. My boss was considered number two to JFK’s Secretary of Agriculture. So even though I already had experience in politics, I learned a lot.”
Thomas eventually returned to the University of Missouri where he served as Associate Director of Continuing Education while working on his doctorate. He then moved to Ohio where he spent five years
as COO for Milk Marketing Inc. Then in
1985, he was chosen to head up the
American Institute of Cooperation, a national educational association in Washington, D.C.
It was here, Thomas says, that he became involved with the U.S Agency for International Development.
“For the first time I began working with developing countries,” he says. “One of the first I went to was Swaziland in the extreme south part of Africa. I enjoyed it a great deal. Then in the late 1980s I began working with the Soviet Union, while it was still under Communist rule and became acquainted with Mikhail Gorbachev.”
Thomas was in Washington when the Soviet Union fell and was asked by President George H.W. Bush to become Associate Director of the United States Peace Corps. The position made him responsible for developing a marketing plan to get the first thousand volunteers to go into Russia.
“I’ve been to Russia six times, all in the rural areas. I was reluctant at first, because I still perceived Russia as Nikita Khrushchev’s Russia,” Thomas explains. “But it was different in the rural areas. We were helping
them, getting them food and clothing. And they appreciated what we were doing. It made me feel we had been misled all along that the Russians were our enemies. That’s why I became so interested in wanting to help people.”
Although asked to move to Moscow to run the program, Thomas declined for family reasons. Instead he moved to St. Louis to head up the United Soybean Board, a commodity promotion organization created by Congress. He had a 63-member board of directors and 18 months to set up the financial responsibilities of a $60 million program to show 500,000 soybean growers in 40 states that their money was being spent productively.
“I was told by the Secretary of State under Bill Clinton we’d never convince them,” Thomas says. “Well we did. And we did it by going into the rural areas, sitting by a
potbelly stove and talking to them straight. We won it on a 54/46 vote.”
His job completed, Thomas was preparing to move to California to take over as COO
for an international medical relief core
when Logos came calling. He spent a day
on campus getting a feel for the culture
and who the faculty was. Then he went to the school’s board of directors and did everything you shouldn’t do during an interview.
“I told them all the things they thought they were doing and weren’t,” he says. “Three weeks later I was running the school.”
Although Thomas admits he did enjoy traveling around the world—he’s been in 31 countries—this late career change suits him quite well.
Thomas also offers his time to organizations throughout St. Louis, including serving on Mayor Slay’s Advisory Committee, and serving as chair of the Mayor’s St. Louis Youth Development Task Force to Reduce Dropout Rates by 2012, and as an active member of the RCGA Public Policy Council.
“I gain a great deal of satisfaction in
helping people help themselves,” he says. “And I’ve been fortunate that throughout my career that’s pretty much what I’ve done.
This is just an extension of that.”
