The Men
Members of the original development team at Cluny, when it came into existence in September 2015, John Emmet Clarke and Scott W. Thompson eventually assumed ownership and operation of the press from its founders, Gellert and Margaret Dornay and Leo and Kathleen Clarke, in January 2017.
In the following months, Clarke and Thompson stewarded Cluny’s emergent presence in the Catholic publishing industry while continuing to refine its strategies and improve their own craft.
In the summer of 2018, John scraped the slime of the Swamp from his shoes and traded his desk and office on Massachusetts Avenue Northeast for a place on the ground floor of Cluny’s
His mission: to make the Cluny catalog a force absolutely to be reckoned with.
In the spring of 2020, Scott forsook the comforts of the financial sector, setting out into the deep after years of success with large banks in Providence.
His mission: to make Cluny a sustainable business, independent of industrial behemoths and supply-chain caprices to place good books in the hands of even better customers.
Onward…
Accomplishing these missions has made neither John nor Scott into famous men—at least not beyond the walls of their homes or the Cluny offices.
But it has given them—and continues to give them—something far more precious. The Irish poet Henry van Dyke once wrote: “Be glad of life, because it gives you the chance to love and work, to play and to look up at the stars.”
And thanks be to God that this work is the work of Cluny.
