The Tulsa Great Books Program is a hybrid program offering weekly courses on a Socratic model utilizing the Great Books to teach the foundations of the liberal arts for homeschooling children. Tulsa Great Books was formally established in 2015 as the fulfillment of a grass roots initiative of Paula Maras and Marion Williams, the original visionaries of our program. Paula Maras has departed from us to receive her Heavenly reward, but her spirit continues to inspire our program. Paula is missed by all in our community, but her vision lives on in the lives of young people who are introduced to the classics of Western Civilization which Paula held sacred, and which continue to form the students who enter our program born of Paula’s vision.
William Dunn | Tutor & Cofounder
William Dunn earned his B.A. in Liberal Arts from Thomas Aquinas College in 1997. While a
student there he was received into the Roman Catholic Church. Eager to learn more about the
Catholic Faith, he spent the next 10 years in some of the leading schools of philosophy and
theology in Europe and America. Immediately following graduation from T.A.C., he spent a year
in the advanced Latin Program offered at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome taught by
Fr. Reginald Foster, who served as the Papal Latinist for 40 years. During that year he also
studied moral theology under Fr. Wojciech Giertych, O.P. who later became the Theologian of
the Pontifical Household for Pope Benedict XVI. He then received both his S.T.M. and S.T.L.
degrees from the International Theological Institute in Gaming, Austria. The S.T.L. is a
canonical degree that fulfills the requirements for teaching sacred theology in Catholic
seminaries. He later completed the course work for the Doctorate in Sacred Theology at the
Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, and then completed the course work for
the Doctorate in Philosophy at the Center for Thomistic Studies in Houston, Texas. During his
teaching career he has taught classes in philosophy, theology, language, literature, history, and
science for both undergraduate and graduate students, as well as homeschool middle school and
high school students. He has taught classes in over 50 subjects, and in his classes he endeavors to show the interconnections between the various branches of learning. For five years he taught
Thomistic Latin for graduate students in both Austria and the United States. He also taught
Thomistic philosophy and theology for St. Catherine’s Dominican Convent in Houston, TX. Ever
since his conversion to the Catholic Church he has felt called to share with others the teachings
of the Faith which are much needed in our secular culture today. A prolific writer of poetry and
essays, his writings have frequently appeared in Catholic publications including the St. Austin
Review published by Joseph Pearce. His first collection of poetry, Wind Among the Leaves was
published in 2012, and a second collection of his poetry is forthcoming. Since 2008 he has taught classes in the Diocese of Tulsa in adult lay Faith Formation Programs, the Diaconate Formation Program, and in the homeschooling community, and he currently teaches online classes in philosophy and theology at Holy Apostles College and Seminary in Connecticut. In 2015 he became a cofounder of the Tulsa
Great Books Program for Catholic High School Homeschoolers, formed under a directive of then
Bishop Edward J. Slattery, a strong supporter of the Catholic homeschooling movement.
Marion Williams | Tutor & Cofounder
Marion Williams received her university education in her native Germany at the University of
Osnabrück where she majored in Special Education and minored in Music. She has had a long
career in teaching both German and Latin in colleges and universities around the country,
including locally at the University of Tulsa, OSU, and TCC. Because Latin and German teachers
are scarce, she has been asked to teach at a variety of middle school and high school programs in
our area, including Holland Hall, Bishop Kelley High School, Holy Family Cathedral School,
and St. Anne’s Middle School. She currently serves as the Latin teacher in our Tulsa Great
Books Program for Catholic High School Homeschoolers.
She also worked as a professional musician, where she sang in the Carl Orff Choir in
Marktoberdorf, Germany which performed in concerts across Europe. This group also competed
in many choir competitions in Europe and won many first prizes. She plays many musical
instruments, and played the lute, krummhorn, and recorders for a Renaissance music group in
Osnabrück, and played both violin and viola for the orchestras at the University of Kansas and at
the University of Osnabrück. She is very gifted at classical guitar and has taught classical guitar
while performing in a classical guitar quartet and as a soloist. For many years she served as the
director of the Holy Family Cathedral Children’s Choir, and she has directed other children’s
choirs. She also worked as a music therapist for children with disabilities and people with
Alzheimer’s. She contributes to music education in our program.
In addition to her scholarship in language and music she has a strong background in history, with
a deep knowledge of European history, and currently serves as the history teacher in our
program.
Marion Williams and Paula Maras were the first people in our diocese to formulate the idea of creating a
supplemental hybrid program for Catholic high school homeschoolers focused on the Great
Books of Western Civilization. In 2015 Bishop Edward J. Slattery moved to promote their
initiative when Marion became a cofounder of our program.
