"And today, I am training a second generation still in its 20's."
With no more than a high school education, Thomas went on to train a generation of heart surgeons.
Many become teachers, helping to train future generations of artists.
"We've trained a whole generation of people who, because they are in the lab, don't get very close to patients," he says.
He was also a major theater teacher, who trained a whole generation of French actors.
"If you want to train a new generation of leaders, you have to get in on the ground floor."
Are marketers training an entire generation that there's never a limit?
The government wanted to train a whole new generation of irrigation engineers - well, why shouldn't it?
He trained a generation of future Polish artists there, until his retirement in 1896.
Their mission was to restore the classical dance and train a new generation.