In Celebration and Gratitude to Tom Monaghan for 20 Years of Educating moral, ethical and faithful lawyers
TOM MONAGHAN With His Eyes On Heaven Sometimes, it is easy to blame others and avoid taking personal responsibility for one’s own circumstances. That could have easily been the case with our Chairman and Founder, Tom Monaghan. You might say that everything seemed stacked against Tom from a very early age. • He lost his father on Christmas Eve when Tom was 4 years old. • He spent the next 6 years living in an orphanage run by Catholic nuns. • He spent most of the remainder of his school years living in foster homes. • He was sent home from the seminary, shattering his dream of becoming a priest. • He graduated last in his high school class. • He enlisted in the Marines, and upon discharge lost all his savings to a swindler. • He did not have enough money to go to college and had to quit in his freshman year. • He bought a small pizza store, which over the ensuing years brought him more than once to the brink of bankruptcy, suffered the loss of his headquarters to a fire, and was involved in a costly 5-year lawsuit that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to keep his company name. Portrait by Dave Neill
Perhaps you have heard part of the Tom Monaghan story, but hopefully there are things you will learn in the next few paragraphs that will help you understand more about this unique and generous man and why he would spend so much of his fortune on starting Ave Maria School of Law.
Advocate | 2020
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