The controversial owner of the Ambassador Bridge has died.
Manuel "Matty" Moroun died peacefully at his home of congestive heart failure Sunday. Born and raised in Detroit, he's owned the bridge since 1979 and his company also purchased the Michigan Central Station in 1995 until selling it to the Ford Motor Company in 2018.
He was at times a controversial figure on both sides of the border, facing backlash for the handling of homes on Indian Road along the bridge that have since been demolished in Windsor, Ont.
The tough business man some hated isn't the man Hospice of Windsor and Essex County's Carol Derbyshire met back in the late '90s.
"He was a very compassionate man. I didn't have to go on bended knee asking for help or anything," she says. "If the economy didn't look good ... Matty would call and say, 'how are you doing and what can we do to help.'"
Derbyshire says a local business man called a mystery friend to match his $140,000 donation more than 20 years ago and he was a champion for the organization ever since.
"He said, 'it's Matty Moroun.' The man that owns the bridge? He said, 'that's him.' He arranged for us to meet and we talked about hospice and how they had experienced hospice over in Michigan," says Derbyshire. "He really believed in it."
She says if anyone has used the shuttle service for The Hospice Village, you can thank Moroun for the idea and the vans.
"Thousands of rides two and from hospital for dialysis to the hospice residential homes," she added.
Moroun's estimated net worth from the crossing and other transportation ventures is more than $1-billion, according to Forbes.
Derbyshire says he quietly donated millions of dollars to a variety of charities in Windsor-Essex and enjoyed spending time in the community.
He is survived by his wife and his son Matthew — he was 93 years old.
— with files from AM800's Rob Hindi.