‘Lord’s Pizza’ founder speaks at academy

WEST PALM BEACH  |  Like his favorite pizza toppings (pepperoni, sausage, onions and bacon), Tom Monaghan served up nuggets of wisdom for students in fourth through eighth grade at Rosarian Academy.

The founder of Domino’s Pizza and Ave Maria University talked about his life, dreams and devotion to his Catholic faith March 7, 2025, at the private Catholic school in West Palm Beach.

After being introduced by Linda Trethewey, head of school, Monaghan fielded questions on the school auditorium stage from local business owner Eric Wind, who arranged Monaghan’s appearance. Some of the questions were submitted by students.

They began at the beginning, with Monaghan speaking about his father’s death Christmas Eve at age 29, which facilitated 4-year-old Tom’s transfer to an orphanage, where he lived most of his childhood. The orphanage was run by Felician sisters from Poland, who were “Very holy, but very strict. That’s where I got my faith,” he said.

Children in the orphanage were all assigned jobs on campus, and his task the last few years was cleaning the chapel. Monaghan said he spent a lot of time with the Blessed Sacrament, sweeping, scrubbing and waxing the floors, when he wasn’t playing on the orphanage baseball team.

“Me being an Irishman with a name like Monaghan, I was the only guy in the infield — I played shortstop — that didn’t have ‘ski’ on the end of his name. So, they used to call me Monaghanski,” he said.

As someone with a lifelong love of baseball, Monaghan realized a dream when he bought the Detroit Tigers. “Of course, I always wanted to play shortstop for the Tigers when I was a kid. I bought the Tigers in the fall of ’83, and that very first year we won the World Series. All the other owners were jealous, saying they’d owned their club for years and never came close. That was a big thrill.”

In 1960, when he was 23 years old, Monaghan bought a struggling pizzeria and eventually revolutionized the pizza delivery business. With his brother as a partner, his goal was to work at night and make enough money to attend college in the daytime.

“My brother backed out, so I had to do it myself. I was losing so much money, and the bills were piling up. I was trying to learn a new business, so I had no time to go to school. And I’m still a freshman. I’m the first and probably the only person that ran a university without a college degree. But don’t think that a college degree isn’t important,” Monaghan told the students. “I made up for it because I’m a very avid reader. I’ve probably read a book a week since I was 8 years old.”

Innovations he initiated were a better pizza box made of corrugated cardboard that was stronger and more resilient, using a conveyor oven to cook the pizzas and putting car-top signs on delivery vehicles. Business wasn’t easy those first few years, Monaghan said, joking that he kept going because he wanted to repay all the money he owed.

“I really had a clear vision of what this company could be and what the potential was, and so I was willing to fight through the tough times,” he said. “There are two words I don’t like — divorce and bankruptcy. No matter what kind of marriage I had, I’d never get divorced, and in business, I’d never go bankrupt, so I just didn’t quit.

“After 20 years of struggling and always being on the brink of bankruptcy, I finally got my act together, got my system worked out and, all of a sudden, I’m opening three stores a day. That’s more stores than any restaurant chain ever opened in history, up to that point,” Monaghan said.

When he bought his first pizzeria in Ypsilanti, Michigan, it was called Dominic’s. But as business took off, Dominic, the former owner, said he couldn’t use the name anymore. So, they sought a catchy new name, possibly something sounding Italian. After delivering pizza to a shoe store, one of his delivery drivers came in and suggested Domino’s, and Monaghan liked it.

“I said, ‘Where’d you get the name?’ He says, ‘Well, when I came into the shoe store, the salesman who ordered the pizza said, ‘Hey, there’s a guy from Domino’s.’ That’s how we got the name,” Monaghan said. “I took a lot of Latin in high school, and I should have known what the word domino’s means in Latin. Anybody know?”

One of the Rosarian students said, “The Lord’s?”  

“Yes. I’m impressed,” Monaghan said. “It’s the Lord’s pizza.”

About 10 years after starting Domino’s, he began attending daily Mass. “I always wanted to do that, always felt I should, but I was very busy building the business and didn’t really have time,” Monaghan said.

Then he read an article that said then-Miami Dolphins coach Don Shula, whose team has the only perfect season in the National Football League, went to Mass every day. “So, I said, ‘Well, if he can do it, as busy he is, then what’s my excuse? So, I’ve been going to Mass every day since 1972. And that’s been a big change in my life.”

His company mission became helping people get to heaven. “That was my goal. How can I use what God gave me to help more people get to heaven? And the answer is to help the church, because that’s why Christ created the church, to save our souls,” said Monaghan, who sold Domino’s in 1998.

A tougher question, he said, is “What’s the best way to help the church?” As a well-known wealthy Catholic, he has received requests from all kinds of Catholic charities meeting all sorts of needs. His conclusion was that the church needs schools to teach people the Catholic faith.

In Michigan, near the Domino’s headquarters, Monaghan started to build Ave Maria University, a four-year college focused on forming future generations of Catholics. Hitting a snag with zoning to expand the campus, he decided to move it in 2003 to Florida near Naples, which has fast growth and high average net worth. The town of Ave Maria includes the university campus.

“It’s probably the most Catholic community in the country. It was just named by YouTube the No. 1 small Catholic community in the country,” he said. “It’s probably the safest community in the country, too. And devout Catholics are moving there from all over the country, with big families. It’s sort of a mecca for Catholicism. And the university is the nucleus of that.”

Monaghan, who will shortly turn 88 years old, has four daughters, 10 grandchildren and nearly eight great-grandchildren. He admitted that he still enjoys a pizza (preferably Domino’s) every now and then, though he may only eat the toppings and leave the crust because he’s watching his weight. One of the Rosarian students shyly asked, “Do you ever get sick of pizza?”

“No,” he said. “I’ve eaten pizzas that were burnt. Bad orders of pizzas that people didn’t pick up that sat around for hours. I still like pizza.”

Monaghan expressed his gratitude for the students’ attention and thoughtful questions. Trethewey responded by saying, “They are good kids. We are very blessed. They are very wonderful children, and we’re blessed at Rosarian to have an independent Catholic school that gets to preach the Gospel at all times and, if necessary, use words.”

To learn more about Rosarian Academy, visit https://rosarian.org or call 561-832-5131.