Notre Dame Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Treasurer Tony Block with his wife, Maureen, on a recent trip to Washington, D.C.
But what of the seemingly countless men and women who work just as hard on campus but do not teach or have regular contact with students. How does the school mission affect what they do on a daily basis? Does it even matter to them?
Well, if you ask Tony Block, Notre Dame’s chief financial officer and corporate treasurer, it sure in the heck does.
He says it matters a whole lot!
Sitting in the business office in one of the portable buildings behind the school, Block says that he and his staff recognize the critical importance of the NDPMA mission, and they all have a laser-like focus on it.
“Our office plays a crucial role behind the ‘we’ of the school mission,” Block says. “We do what we do so that teachers, administrators, coaches and counselors can do the great work they do. Our office works to assist the well-being of the whole of the school. Yes, we stay in the background, but we do that in order to keep the ‘machine’ running well all of the time.”
Because Block and his staff operate in the background, and because the machine seems to operate like, well, a well-oiled machine, most in the community have no idea what makes Notre Dame tick.
For Block himself, his responsibilities at NDPMA include overseeing all of the financial aspects of the school. Things like banking, paying bills, collecting tuition, managing budgets, payroll, legal matters and the like. But add to that what his staff does, and you get the bigger picture.
Block is with his wife, Maureen, daughter, Alison, and son, Andrew.
Block says that besides providing teachers, counselors and coaches with all of the tools they need to do their great work on a daily basis, the business office also must take a long-term view of the operation. “We plan not only for this year and the next, but for many years down the road. We work to be good stewards of the school—financially, legally, operationally—so that the school can continue fulfilling its mission many years into the future.”
Now in his 10th year at NDPMA, Block came to Pontiac after Notre Dame High School in Harper Woods closed. He had been the business manager at NDHS for two years and was the controller for Treetops Resort in Gaylord, Michigan, for 13 years before that. As a former employee and graduate of NDHS (1980), Block knows backwards and forward the Marist mission and philosophy of education, and because of that, he says, the learning curve at Notre Dame in Pontiac was short. “The transition was very smooth,” he said.
Block has two children, Andrew, a Notre Dame grad (’08) and current law student at George Mason University, and Alison, a 2013 graduate of Anchor Bay High School and current English/writing major at Miami University. Block is a former youth hockey coach (11 years) and he and his wife, Maureen, now reside in Chesterfield Township where he brews beer, makes wine and watches the occasional Red Wings game “although I’m not as much of a Wings fanatic as I used to be.”
Comments or questions? mkelly@ndpma.org.
Follow Notre Dame on Twitter at @NDPMA.
About Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy
Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. The school's upper division enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame's middle and lower divisions enroll students in jr. kindergarten through grade eight. All three divisions are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDPMA is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy, visit the school's home page at www.ndpma.org.