John Gullo’s life reads like a classic rags-to-riches story: a poor, fatherless childhood in a tough Italian neighborhood in Buffalo, New York — a place he likens to the world depicted in the film “Goodfellas” — followed by the building of a Burger King franchise empire in the mountainous West of Utah. But for the entrepreneur-turned-philanthropist, the “riches” never equated to the money he made. From early in life, Gullo instinctively understood that success was about giving back.

“It’s more important to be happy than it is to make money. And that’s a belief of mine. And when you ask me about my business, I never got into it to make money,” he told Fox News Digital.

Now 82, Gullo — who opened a total of 54 franchises across Utah, Arizona and Wisconsin during his career, including the first-ever Burger King attached to a gas station, in Hurricane, Utah — is sharing his life’s journey in a memoir, “Extraordinary Adventures of an Ordinary Man.” The book, written with author Bridget Cook-Burch and available on Amazon, traces his path from his first job as a night manager at the fast-food chain to establishing the nonprofit American Dream Foundation with seed money from his business success, and to becoming the designated “Father of Professional Pickleball.” Gullo refers to the memoir’s title as “the caption for my life.”

Gullo’s path from night manager to multi-unit owner reflects the franchise model that Burger King and other fast-food chains have long used to expand — one in which individual operators, rather than the corporate parent, own and run most of the restaurants. His gas-station location, meanwhile, anticipated a broader trend of fast-food outlets pairing with convenience stores and travel stops.

He said the reason he eventually sold his restaurants was that he was no longer working with kids. “I wasn’t actively involved in the day-to-day operation, and I missed that,” he said.

“Everything I do with kids is a life lesson, so when I wrote the book, I did life lessons after each chapter with the hope that kids are going to read this thing and people are going to see it, and they’re going to learn from it,” Gullo added, noting his belief that he has been spiritually inspired all of his life.

“Giving is just very important to me — it’s very rewarding to me,” he said. “Maybe it’s because when you have nothing, you appreciate everything so much more.”

A quarter-century of philanthropy

As documented in the recent Deseret News article “How Utah’s Burger King king became the king of giving back,” Gullo has focused strictly, for the last quarter-century, on helping people and organizations that help people. His projects have served children, teens, families, classrooms, firefighters and those with disabilities.

His philanthropy has supported dozens of charitable endeavors and organizations, including Prevent Child Abuse and the Children’s Justice Center. He has also been behind Ogden, Utah-based Enable Industries, which serves people with disabilities, as well as the American Fallen Fire Memorial, Youth in Transition, the Ogden Police Department’s Let’s Play Program, and the Treehouse Children’s Museum.

The latter includes the American Freedom Trail, which every fifth-grader in Weber County can visit on a field trip. It is just one piece of what Gullo’s American Dream Foundation has funded since 2002, with more than $2 million going toward charitable causes.

Gullo also emphasizes the freedom to hold one’s own opinions and the opportunities the United States has afforded him, themes he has expressed in patriotic videos featured on his foundation’s website.

“I think it’s important that the kids know the price that was paid to give them the right to burn the flag. The patriotism that existed at that time, the love of country at that time, it’s disappearing,” he explained. “We’re so segmented right now, and I do everything I can to offset that.”

Gullo said he has friends on both sides of the political aisle, and that regardless of their beliefs they remain friends. “We disagree, that’s OK,” he said.

A 20-year friendship with Thurl Bailey

He specifically pointed to his friendship with former NBA player Thurl Bailey, who now does color commentary for the Utah Jazz and wrote the foreword to Gullo’s book. The two have collaborated for 20 years on charitable events.

“What this country needs more of is to have a relationship like ours,” Gullo said, describing the two as totally different but “brothers from another mother,” united in how they care about people. “We care about things and we work together. And there’s just not enough of that in the United States anymore,” Gullo said, noting his pursuit of bringing organizations and people together.

Bailey called their first meeting — at a charity event where Gullo purchased an auction item that involved Bailey giving a keynote speech at an Ogden youth program for underprivileged kids — “fortuitous.”

“That’s when I really started to find out what a charitable man he was — a man successful in business in his own right, but you would never know it because he’s just so giving,” Bailey told Fox News Digital.

Later, during country music concerts in Ogden sponsored by Gullo, the two realized they had parallel lives growing up. “We clicked on a lot of levels when it came to our backgrounds, even though mine turned into sports and his into business and philanthropy. We both connected on the giving side,” Bailey said.

Pickleball: the sport that saved his life

Gullo credits pickleball with saving his life after heart failure. He first discovered the game while recovering from quintuple bypass heart surgery in 2008. It helped him lose 100 pounds and inspired him to get courts built throughout Northern Utah — hundreds of them, in fact. He went on to found the Professional Pickleball Federation and the Tournament of Champions, a national event with prize money donated from his own pocket.

Those contributions to the growth of the sport — whose popularity has skyrocketed — led to his induction into the Pickleball Hall of Fame in 2024. He is officially dubbed the “Father of Professional Pickleball.” Pickleball has been repeatedly cited in recent years by the Sports & Fitness Industry Association as one of the fastest-growing sports in America, drawing players across age groups — a boom Gullo helped seed in Northern Utah well before it went mainstream.

“This is the most social game ever invented. You just got to show up. You don’t have to get three guys to play golf or tennis or anything like that,” Gullo said. “What other sport do you know where a guy like me can partner with a 24-year-old kid in a tournament and be part of it? That’s what makes this sport so great.”

Life lessons for the next generation

A proud father of two sons, Gullo continually emphasizes to young people the difference between positive and negative mistakes.

“A positive mistake is when you’re trying to do something and you make a mistake. I can live with that. A negative mistake is when you screw up because you don’t do anything. It’s that simple,” he said, noting he also tries to keep his own grandkids on track.

“After COVID, I sat down with them and said, ‘What did you learn?’ And after some discussion, I said, COVID taught you the difference between wants and needs. What did you go without that you really don’t need in your life? Because when I was a kid, everything was a want, everything was a need because we had nothing.”

He credits the Jaycees, a civic and leadership training organization for young adults, with bringing him out of his shell and instilling in him the importance of leadership through community service.

“When I joined the Jaycees, I was an introvert, but the Jaycees really turned me around… and that’s where I learned a lot about my business and charity life because all of a sudden you’re in charge of a project and you have to get people to help you,” he said. “You’re not paying them, and you might not even like them, so I learned that part of human relations through that process…”

Now, as he undertakes a program with Bailey at Ogden High School featuring his book and leadership training, Gullo looks back and remains amazed at what he has accomplished — sometimes even joking about certain triumphs, such as being the first to put a fast-food restaurant in a gas station of any kind.

“…I went to Russia and I saw McDonald’s and a gas station and I said, ‘Father, forgive me, I know not what I do,’” he quipped.

Mostly, it is the realization that his American Dream Foundation has donated more than $2 million since 2002 that leaves him in disbelief. In keeping with his philosophy, all proceeds from his book will go to charity.

“I didn’t go to college, barely got out of high school… you’re talking to a guy that grew up in poverty,” Gullo said. “I realized it took the same amount of energy to cry as it does to laugh, and the choice is mine.”

“The power of one means one person can do a lot,” he added.

“John’s a man who cares about a lot of things, but is passionate about giving,” Bailey said. “He’s a giver. The world needs more John Gullos.”