The son, grandson and great grandson of bituminous miners from Cambria County, Pennsylvania, Charles Martin Madigan was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania in 1949, where he attended parochial school and later, St. Columban’s Seminary in Silver Creek, New York.

Madigan attended Pennsylvania State University and in 1967, joined the Altoona Mirror, then The Patriot-News in Harrisburg. In 1970, he joined United Press International in Philadelphia as a writer and editor. He was transferred to UPI in the Soviet Union in 1976 and stayed there until 1979, when he joined the Chicago Tribune. There, he was a reporter, correspondent, national editor Perspective Editor, Washington news editor and columnist. Among his awards was the Overseas Press Club Award for Human Rights Reporting for an investigation of war crimes in Kosovo. In 1971 he married Linda Kay Harbaugh.

Madigan and his wife Linda have three sons, Eamon, Brian, and Conor. Madigan graduated with honors from Roosevelt University in 2005 and spent a decade there as Presidential Writer in Residence. He resides in Evanston, Illinois.