Manuel Moroun

Manuel Moroun was born in Detroit in 1927. He was of Lebanese descent; his grandfather first moved from South America to Windsor, Ontario, before residing in Detroit after the First World War ended. He grew up on the city's east side with three sisters. His father ran two gas stations in Detroit, where Matty worked before and during high school, which he completed at the University of Detroit Jesuit High School. He later recounted how Jimmy Hoffa was one of the customers for whom he'd pumped gas.

In 1946, his father bought Central Cartage Company, which would later become Central Transport, and Moroun started working with him. During college, Matty regularly commuted between the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, and Detroit to help run the family business. He graduated in 1949 with a bachelor's degree in chemistry and biology. He aspired to become a doctor, but ultimately went back to Detroit to work at the family's service station. He also cleaned and serviced buses for a living. By the middle of the 1950s, he was responsible for managing most of his family's trucking business.

Moroun bought the Ambassador Bridge in 1979 when shares came on the market. It was originally privately built by railroad interests.

One of Moroun's sisters, Agnes, was in charge of the human resources department at CenTra Inc. His other two sisters, Victoria Baks and Florence McBrien, sued him for $53 million in 1992. They alleged that he had "cheated them out of their inheritance" following their father's death that same year, in addition to engaging in shareholder oppression and excluding them from the business. The seven-year legal concluded in October 1999 with a settlement that saw Moroun purchase the shares of his two sisters in CenTra Inc. He ultimately reconciled with them.

In 2009, the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) sued Moroun and the Detroit International Bridge Company for failing to comply with the terms of a contract to construct ramps connecting the Ambassador Bridge to nearby expressways as part of the Gateway Project. Wayne County Circuit Judge Prentis Edwards ruled in February 2010 that Moroun and the chief deputy of the Detroit International Bridge Co., Dan Stamper, were in violation of the contract and ordered them to come into compliance. On January 12, 2012, Judge Edwards found both Moroun and Stamper to be in non-compliance with his previous order and ordered both men to jail, denying a motion to stay the order until it could be appealed to the Michigan Court of Appeals. After spending a night in jail, both men were released by the appellate court while they heard the case.

Moroun owned Michigan Central Station from 1995 until selling it to Ford Motor Company in 2018. Moroun and his family had faced criticism for failing to invest in the property over its years of ownership, leading to a significant amount of decay within the property and generally contributing to the "urban blight" character that enshrouded Detroit for much of the latter part of the 20th century and early 21st century.

Moroun died of congestive heart failure on July 12, 2020.

Matty Moroun turns 87

The Detroit Billionaire Likability Index. While we may not be effusively wishing him a happy birthday, we note today that rich-as-Croesus transport tycoon Manuel "Matty"...