In August 1959, Matthew F. Brady, Bishop of Manchester, opened the fundraising drive for St. Thomas Aquinas High School. When Bishop Brady suddenly died, Cardinal Richard Cushing of Boston kept his last project alive. Cardinal Cushing greeted the new bishop, Ernest J. Primeau, with the advice, "Go on with St. Thomas Aquinas."
The diocesan co-educational school opened in 1960 with a freshman class only. Serving seventeen parishes in southeastern New Hampshire, the school was staffed by two diocesan priests, seven School Sisters of Notre Dame and one layman. When STA graduated its class of 219 in 1964, the faculty had grown to six priests, twenty-one sisters (requiring a new convent) and four lay teachers.
By the late 1960s, enrollment topped nine hundred students, making St. Thomas Aquinas a Class L power in athletics. A nationwide trend toward declining enrollments, combined with the higher cost of salaries as the number of teaching sisters fell, brought St. Thomas through a series of challenges throughout the 1970s.
Beginning in the mid-1980s through the 1990s St. Thomas Aquinas showed a steady and dramatic increase in enrollment. During this period the school enhanced and expanded the academic and extracurricular programs available to students. The convent, named Notre Dame Hall, was converted to provide additional classroom space and to house the Guidance Department, which includes offices, a library, and a conference area.
School enrollment continued to grow into the mid-2000s, topping more than 700 students in 2007-08. Enrollment declined in subsequent years. St. Thomas’s 2023-24 headcount was half of the school’s peak a decade-and-a-half earlier.[2]
Controversy over faculty dismissals
In May 2023, the school generated a national controversy when St. Thomas Aquinas president, Paul C. Marquis, declined to renew the contracts of four long-standing teachers. Parents, students, teachers, and alumni stated the teachers’ support of LGBTQ people was the cause for their dismissal, a claim that school and diocesan officials denied.[3][4][5][6][7] That same month, three additional teachers decided to retire and an eighth faculty member resigned in protest of the firings.[8] As of 2025, the school’s non-discrimination policy for students does not include sexual orientation or gender identity.[9]
St. Thomas Aquinas High School mascot, Bernie. Dover, NH
In 2011–12, STA was state champion in football (Div IV), girls' swimming, baseball (Div II), and girls' tennis (Div II). The school was a finalist in girls' volleyball and boys' lacrosse. Tennis player Julia Keenan became the first high school athlete in New Hampshire to win four straight individual titles in any sport.
In 2012–13, the girls' volleyball team repeated as state finalists and the girls' tennis team repeated as state champions.
Overall, St. Thomas Aquinas has won 30 state team championships in the last 16 years, along with dozens of individual titles.
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