Patrick Edward Monaghan, age 78, of Munith, MI, died Sunday, September 13, 2020, at home in his sleep of natural causes. Born November 13, 1941 at old St Joe's Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan, he was the oldest of three children born to Pearl Wooden Monaghan, a nurse, and Edward James Monaghan, a mason. He was preceded in death by his parents and his younger brother, Stephen.
Pat began working as a mason's apprentice for his father at the age of 14 and graduated from Ann Arbor High School in 1960. He enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1962 and was covertly deployed to the hills around Guantanamo Bay Naval Base during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
When he was discharged from the Marines, he was deputized to the two-man police force in Dexter, MI, then operating out of the tiny building in the park in downtown Dexter. The police station did not have its own telephone, but residents could call the Dexter Pub, and they would send someone to alert the police. He said the first thing he learned as a deputy was to circle the block a couple times before going in to break up a bar fight (and let the combatants wear each other down a bit.) Police work was the profession he loved. He tried to join the Michigan State Police, but at 5'9”, he was an inch too short, according to the then height requirement.
He hired in at the Plant Department at the University of Michigan and worked there for 40 years, the last 30 as the University Inspector overseeing large or unusual roof repairs. He oversaw jobs as varied as the re-roofing of Crisler Arena, the replacement of the old copper roof on the Burton Memorial Carillon Tower, and the historical renovation/reconstruction of the old Detroit Observatory.
But his real love was police work, and his entire working life he held a second job as a Ranger with the Metroparks, first at Kensington and then at Hudson Mills Metropark near Dexter. He was proud of his many acts of courtesy and courage - rescuing a dog who had been swept away by the Huron River in a flood, helping birth a baby when a mother couldn't get to the hospital in time - and many other incidents of bravery and empathy. He always said that he thought that the good things he did in his work would offset his lapses when he came to be weighed in the balance.
He was a knowledgeable hunter and fisherman, often called in to track a wounded deer lost in a marsh. He began hunting with his father at the age of nine, and this will be the first year since then that he will miss deer hunting season.
He is survived by his sister, Rosemary Trowbridge (Charlie), of Moses Lake, WA, wife, Beth Monaghan Metty of Munith, MI, former wife, Judy (Baker) Monaghan of Jackson, MI; his children, Kathy Gipson of Jackson, MI, and Ed Monaghan (Peggy) of Munith, MI; grandchildren, Kristy Gipson, Ethan Monaghan and Emma Monaghan; and several nieces and nephews.
Cremation and memorial services will be private. Memorial gifts may be made to Glioblastoma Cancer Research, the Henry Ford Cancer Institute, Henry Ford Allegiance Hospital, Jackson, MI.
Arrangements by Caskey-Mitchell Funeral Home, Stockbridge.
