Tom Talks

Tom Monaghan considered entering the priesthood, at least until adolescence intervened. Pillow fights and other mischievous behavior got him ousted from the seminary, and his attraction to the opposite sex dampened his enthusiasm for the celibate life of a cleric. Instead, Monaghan went on to become a U.|S. Marine, husband, father and the entrepreneur who built the Domino's Pizza empire-and made a fortune doing it.

But these days, Monaghan is back to his religious roots. His devotion to the faith has never been stronger, as evidenced by his generous funding of Catholic charities and Southwest Florida's new Ave Maria University, with a temporary campus located in Naples. Humble, soft-spoken and committed to a life of simplicity rather than excess, the Ann Arbor, Mich. resident is far from the stereotype of the egomaniacal CEO. It's a simpler time for a complex individual whose strength is rooted in a challenging childhood.

Monaghan's father died on Christmas Eve when the boy was four, leaving his mother to support him and his younger brother, Jim. When she began attending nursing school, she placed Tom and Jim in various foster homes. At age six, Tom, joined by Jim, wound up in St. Joseph's Home for Boys in Jackson, Mich. It was an indelible, yet positive, experience for Monaghan, who was fed a steady diet of Catholicism at the orphanage. The boys returned to live with their mother a few years later when she completed nursing school.

Monaghan's entrepreneurial prowess showed in those early years. He sold vegetables he grew and fish that he caught. He hawked newspapers on the corner and worked on several farms. After he left the seminary, Monaghan entered the Marine Corps in 1956 and received an honorable discharge three years later. He immediately returned to Ann Arbor and enrolled in the University of Michigan. While attending college, he and Jim borrowed $900 to buy a pizza store called DomiNick's in Ypsilanti, Mich. Soon after, he bought out his brother and opened stores in Ann Arbor and Mt. Pleasant, Mich. He dropped out of college.

Over the years, Monaghan expanded what was now called Domino's Pizza. The company became an innovator in food delivery and invented new processes and products, including dough trays, corrugated pizza boxes, a conveyor oven and a franchising system. Monaghan bought aircraft, cars and a luxurious home. He also purchased the Detroit Tigers baseball team-and later sold it. When Monaghan sold control of his company in 1998 for about $1 billion, it had grown to 6,250 stores.

Monaghan's opinions and management style have not always made him popular. His adamant anti-abortion stance has drawn sharp criticism and occasional protests from pro-choicers. And his business methods have been ridiculed by scholars and a prominent accounting firm. He also admits to having a temper-one he brought under control by strengthening his Catholic faith.

He long ago dispatched many of his large material holdings and concentrated on supporting his religion, first by establishing the Ave Maria Foundation in 1983 to funnel donations toward Catholic charities, particularly schools. The foundation established the Ave Maria School of Law in Ann Arbor and, six years ago, Ave Maria University. With a $200 million endowment, Monaghan will build a permanent campus for the school near Immokalee.

Monaghan visits the campus frequently these days and certainly will become a fixture here in the coming years. On one steamy Florida morning, he walks by himself into the Ave Maria student center, washing down some dry cereal with bottled water. He wears a conservative gray suit, a colorful tie and his boyish smile. Politely, he answers questions with honesty and without reservation. It's clear though, that he is no shrinking violet-just a person at peace with his place in life.

Q: Ave Maria will draw from Catholic schools across the country. What's your assessment of the parochial system?

A: It's pretty bad now. It was a great system when I grew up. We had all the nuns but they all of a sudden disappeared in the '60s, and things have gone downhill. Many of the kids in Catholic school are not Catholic. If the public-school system weren't so bureaucratic and so bad, Catholic schools would be in really big trouble. A lot of people go to Catholic schools to avoid the crime and other problems in public schools.

Q: What can be done to help the Catholic schools?

A: We can teach people to run these schools. It's like with a pizza shop. If you have a good manager, you have a good shop. The principal's the key. We can have a much larger impact on Catholic education by having one great university.

Q: How have revelations about sexual abuse in the Catholic Church affected the institution and its schools?

A: In the long term, it's a good thing. It's documented that the biggest target of American media is the Catholic Church. I think they really did the church a big favor because it cleaned house in the seminaries, getting rid of a lot of priests who shouldn't be priests, and a lot of bishops who shouldn't be bishops.

Q: You have declared yourself a "better Catholic." How have you accomplished that?

A: I preface this by saying I've got a long way to go and I have a lot of making up to do. I was brought up very fortunate to have a very strong education in my faith. I always wanted to be a priest when I was a kid, until I started having an attraction to girls.

Over the years, I would go to Mass on Sunday, but that was about it. Certain things happened in my life that moved me in that direction. Getting married and having kids helped. I was inspired by [former Miami Dolphins head coach] Don Shula when he said he went to Mass everyday, and that was right after he had a perfect season. I thought, "If he can do that, why can't I?" It was a big step forward for me spiritually. And I try to be nicer to people. I try not to lose my temper, which I rarely do. But I used to have a terrible temper. I tend to be pretty intense and passionate about things. And people who have worked for me for the past 20 years are surprised to hear I had a temper.

Q: You've also said material things are no longer important to you. What did you have that no longer is so important?

A: The best yachts, the best planes, the best of everything. I strove for those things, and I attained them. It was after I read [C.S.Lewis'] Mere Christianity that I realized that this was nothing but pride. And pride is the source of all sins. If that's true, then I was the biggest sinner in the world and I needed to shape up. So I took what I called the millionaire's vow of poverty. I gave up ostentatious luxuries. And it's been a great relief.

Q: What do you drive and fly in these days?

A: I have an Audi and a [Chevrolet] Suburban. I don't own a plane. I use time share. Over the years I owned close to 30 airplanes.

Q: Some clergy, some Catholics among them, have voiced opposition to the war in Iraq. Do you agree with them?

A: I wouldn't be qualified to have an opinion on that. I have a lot of faith in President Bush.

Q: You plan to have a residence on the campus. How much will you be seen and what kind of hand will you have in operations?

A: If it were up to me, I'd be down here 365 days a year. My wife has made it very clear she's not going to be down here in the summer. So my hope is that I'll spend nine months a year here during the school year.

Q: Looking back to when you started the company, what are some of the differences you see in business today?

A: I don't know if there are any real differences. You still have to motivate and attract the people, and they have to serve the customer. It's the same things as before. Your customers come first and you come last.

Q: If you were a younger man today, starting a pizza store or another venture, would you succeed?

A: Yes. One thing I don't lack is confidence. I think I can compete with anybody, in just about any business. I'll just figure out a way. For me it's exciting, it's a challenge, it's a game.

Q: Where did that spirit come from?

A: I grew up in an orphanage and it probably came from sports. We were all boys, and sports was our life. And I wanted to excel in sports. I never thought that I couldn't. I didn't think about my shortcomings. In business, you don't have the same physical shortcomings that you might have as an athlete. The big advantage I have over the competition is thinking long-term. And that's exactly where I'm going with this university. You start small, start humble. Domino's came from a very humble start. We created in many ways the finest fast-food company in the country. We put a lot of pieces together. A lot of that stuff was brand new.