Seth Lesser arrived on Philippine shores on August 12, 1901 as part of the contingent of pioneer educators deployed by the U.S. government. As a group, they became known as the “Thomasites,” a name which was derived from the vessel that brought them to the former American colony, the “USS Thomas.”
Seth Lesser came to the Southeast Asian archipelago along with his idealistic fellow-teachers with the noble vision of preparing the Filipinos for the difficult task of self-governance that lay in their horizon. They set out to establish a new public education system and to train Filipino teachers in basic education and in the use of the English language as medium of instruction. The credit of transforming the former Spanish colony into the third largest English-speaking country in the world, would later be conferred upon the Thomasites. His two older brothers who founded their own schools were also teachers.
Then a 25-year old man, Seth Lesser was one of the approximately one hundred Thomasites who stayed on in the Philippines even after the completion of their teaching assignments. He would live and be buried in Ilocos Norte, a province in the northern part of the Philippines. Married to the former Ligaya Madiaga, he had five sons who all became teachers.
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