Mr. Thorpe grew up in Sapulpa, Oklahoma. At college he met and married his wife, Beth, an Iowa native who is a school librarian and homeschool mom. After graduation someone gave him the wild idea to apply to Yale University for seminary, and much to his surprise, he got in! Studying at one of the world’s greatest universities gave him the chance to study Latin, Koine Greek, and Attic Greek at a high level, building a constituency of private Latin students among local homeschoolers. He was ordained as a priest in the Episcopal church in 2005, serving churches in Albany, New York, and Newton, Iowa.

But Mr. Thorpe kept feeling the itch to teach. At first it was Latin and Western Civilization to homeschoolers, then it was Church History to prospective clergy and Sunday School classes to various churches, then he became the first full-time Chaplain and Latin Instructor at St. John’s Episcopal School in Dallas, Texas. There he wrote and graded tests for the Board of Examining Chaplains and served as the Ecumenical Officer. Five years of teaching Religion and Latin to 7th and 8th graders taught Mr. Thorpe one thing: great teachers are AMAZING! He knew he needed more formal training in education to be a better teacher, so he went to Saint Louis University in 2019 to study Religious Education.

The came COVID, and everything changed. Mr. Thorpe became a homeschool dad and part-time pastor during the COVID years, and he studied medieval manuscripts at the Manuscripta Project for the Vatican Film Library. When a job opened up as a school chaplain in Tulsa, Mr. Thorpe jumped at the chance to move back to his family roots. He served as the Upper School Chaplain and Religious Studies department head at Holland Hall for a year before coming to Tulsa Classical Academy to teach Latin and English. Mr. Thorpe has three children, is always to be found watching college football on Saturdays in the Fall (Boomer!), and a foodie, having taught several French Cooking summer camps. He loves all things Star Wars, plays the Saxophone and guitar, and creates his own medieval books by hand-copying texts in authentic medieval scripts and binding them himself with wood, leather, glue, and thread. He loves icons, all discussions of philosophy, theology, ancient culture, military history, and the classical languages.