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Monaghan: A Life
Pizza mogul, sports owner, billionaire, devout Catholic, university founder, philanthropist.
These are just a few of the many words that describe Tom Monaghan. The man who built Domino’s Pizza into an empire, owned the Detroit Tigers, built a Catholic college, then moved it halfway across the country and turned it into a university surrounded by a growing city…is all of those things and more. Much more as both his admirers and detractors would say.
In short, like all humans, he is complex. But at his core is an unwavering Catholicism that has strengthened him amidst adversity and grounded him amidst prosperity. In this volume, Joseph Pearce, the preeminent Catholic biographer of our time, traces Monaghan’s life story from “the gutter to the stars” and, with his own deep knowledge of and devotion to Catholicism, is able to tell it in such a way that the reader will realize and appreciate that, despite missteps along the way, the subject is a man whose greatest desire is not to be among “the stars,” but rather among the saints in heaven at the end of his earthly pilgrimage. And that, ultimately, should be the desire of us all, flawed as we all are.
The life of Tom Monaghan is an inspiring story of success in the face of what, for many, may have been insurmountable odds, of determination to succeed when it would have been easy to quit, and of a childhood faith rediscovered that changed his life and the lives of so many others.
These are just a few of the many words that describe Tom Monaghan. The man who built Domino’s Pizza into an empire, owned the Detroit Tigers, built a Catholic college, then moved it halfway across the country and turned it into a university surrounded by a growing city…is all of those things and more. Much more as both his admirers and detractors would say.
In short, like all humans, he is complex. But at his core is an unwavering Catholicism that has strengthened him amidst adversity and grounded him amidst prosperity. In this volume, Joseph Pearce, the preeminent Catholic biographer of our time, traces Monaghan’s life story from “the gutter to the stars” and, with his own deep knowledge of and devotion to Catholicism, is able to tell it in such a way that the reader will realize and appreciate that, despite missteps along the way, the subject is a man whose greatest desire is not to be among “the stars,” but rather among the saints in heaven at the end of his earthly pilgrimage. And that, ultimately, should be the desire of us all, flawed as we all are.
The life of Tom Monaghan is an inspiring story of success in the face of what, for many, may have been insurmountable odds, of determination to succeed when it would have been easy to quit, and of a childhood faith rediscovered that changed his life and the lives of so many others.
280 pages, Hardcover
Published December 26, 2016
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About the author
Joseph Pearce
182 books297 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author with this name on GR
Joseph Pearce (born 1961) is an English-born writer, and as of 2004 Writer in Residence and Professor of Literature at Ave Maria University in Ave Maria, Florida; previously he had a comparable position, from 2001, at Ave Maria College in Ypsilanti, Michigan. He is known for a number of literary biographies, many of Catholic figures. Formerly aligned with the National Front, a white nationalist political party, he converted to Roman Catholicism in 1989, repudiated his earlier views, and now writes from a Catholic perspective. He is a co-editor of the St. Austin Review and editor-in-chief of Sapientia Press.
Joseph Pearce (born 1961) is an English-born writer, and as of 2004 Writer in Residence and Professor of Literature at Ave Maria University in Ave Maria, Florida; previously he had a comparable position, from 2001, at Ave Maria College in Ypsilanti, Michigan. He is known for a number of literary biographies, many of Catholic figures. Formerly aligned with the National Front, a white nationalist political party, he converted to Roman Catholicism in 1989, repudiated his earlier views, and now writes from a Catholic perspective. He is a co-editor of the St. Austin Review and editor-in-chief of Sapientia Press.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 27, 2023
The parts of the book I enjoyed the most was about Tom Monaghan’s upbringing, both his childhood and his young adulthood, which were tumultuous. His rags to riches story is incredible and inspiring.
That aside, this is not a hard-hitting definitive biography and Pearce makes no claims as such. Most of the book is about Monaghan’s faith and his creation of the Ave Maria schools which admittedly I was much less interested in. That is where Pearce’s expertise lies and if you want to know the details of Ave Maria’s creation, you’ll enjoy this book more than I did. I found myself skimming and skipping a lot at that point.
The chronology and the development is inconsistent, there are a lot of out of place information drops. Having grown up in Detroit myself and written a book about the 1980’s Detroit Tigers owned by Monaghan, I can say that Pearce greatly misrepresented his success as well as his highly immoral behavior in that time. Pearce does not know baseball or pro sports and cherry picks certain stats to prove Monaghan was a great owner. He ignores the obvious; Monaghan treated people horribly, gutted the best franchise in baseball for his own financial profit, and then stabbed his old friends in the back on the way out. None of this was part of the book. It seemed like everything was twisted to make him look like a genius and a saint.
Anyway, I loved the early parts but it’s a lot more hagiography and not particularly well written.
That aside, this is not a hard-hitting definitive biography and Pearce makes no claims as such. Most of the book is about Monaghan’s faith and his creation of the Ave Maria schools which admittedly I was much less interested in. That is where Pearce’s expertise lies and if you want to know the details of Ave Maria’s creation, you’ll enjoy this book more than I did. I found myself skimming and skipping a lot at that point.
The chronology and the development is inconsistent, there are a lot of out of place information drops. Having grown up in Detroit myself and written a book about the 1980’s Detroit Tigers owned by Monaghan, I can say that Pearce greatly misrepresented his success as well as his highly immoral behavior in that time. Pearce does not know baseball or pro sports and cherry picks certain stats to prove Monaghan was a great owner. He ignores the obvious; Monaghan treated people horribly, gutted the best franchise in baseball for his own financial profit, and then stabbed his old friends in the back on the way out. None of this was part of the book. It seemed like everything was twisted to make him look like a genius and a saint.
Anyway, I loved the early parts but it’s a lot more hagiography and not particularly well written.
August 26, 2021
A beautiful life of Tom Monaghan. I was reflecting that he's not obviously a saint, but he's a good man trying to live out the Faith in the world of business and philanthropy. I can empathize with his struggles and be inspired by his persistence in following Christ in unexpected directions.
November 5, 2017
Growing up Catholic in Michigan means you knew who the Dominos founder was. Joseph Pearce its stated on the book jacket is "the preeminent Catholic biographer". This alone should have clued me into the extreme bias in the book. Nevertheless, I persisted. Yuck!! I used to admire Monaghan. Now I see him as a jerk that needs extreme counseling from his youth abandonment issues. At his core he is egocentric and even the building of his University was really about making a name for himself. I kind of lost track of what he was doing when he sold the Tigers now I know why. What a huge bigot. Thank God for Pope Francis. Please let the church move away from egomaniacs like this.
September 7, 2023
Beautiful tribute to an incredibly human and real man. The story of his life so far is truly inspiring. The number of people he has positively impacted both directly and indirectly is too many to count. And his love for his faith is beautiful. I also loved the authors perspective and writing.
March 3, 2025
Such a great read! I feel like I know Tom Monaghan personally after reading this biography.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews