Mark LoParco
Director, University Dining Services
How long have you been at UM?
I started on July 15, 1992.
Are you having as much fun as you did in the beginning?
I’m doing as much work or even more these days, but actually I’m having more fun now.
Have you ever been in a band?
Yeah. When I was in Boy Scouts they needed a drummer for when we took down the flag, so I said, "I’ll do that," even though I didn’t know how to play the drums. That was the extent of my music career, although I have dressed up like Kiss for the Omelet Bar at the Food Zoo. We’ve also done the Rocky Horror Omelet Show – that would be me in a bustier.
What song do you wish you had written?
"The Mayor of Candor Lied" by Harry Chapin.
What’s your favorite place on campus?
When I’m moving from point A to point B on campus, it’s the Grizzly Statue out here (on the Oval). I must take about 50 pictures a year of family, students, visitors – you know, they’re standing there trying to take a picture and I offer to take it. The other favorite place is up on the stadium’s press box rooftop, watching a Grizzly game.
What is your favorite annual UM event?
I gotta say football, because that’s a given. But I would also say fall orientation. Fall orientation for me is like spring, the season. In spring, everything is new, green, alive, vibrant. Everything is about growth. Well, during fall orientation when students come, it’s the same thing – there’s a lot of positive energy.
Who has influenced you most in your time here?
Old Charlie Thorne. Charlie Thorne is a Student Affairs business guy. When I first came here 15 years ago, I was a much younger East Coast kind of a guy. I came from Syracuse, New York, and the pace of when things got done was much faster, and I came from a private school, so the idea of not having funding was a new concept for me. Charlie provided good advice and counsel for me on how to become successful in this environment. Had he not been the one to say, "You better slow down" a few times, I may not have made it through those early years.
What’s the most exciting thing that’s ever happened to you?
You mean in my whole life?
You can narrow it down to one decade if you need.
The birth of my two daughters. That was very exciting. I was there to catch.
Describe any research or special projects you’ve been working on.
The hottest topic right now on college campuses is sustainability. The hottest project on this campus is a learning laboratory dining facility that we’re creating and hope to have open by next fall above the Urey Lecture Hall.
What is a learning laboratory?
It will be a business entity focused on sustainable business practices, in close collaboration with Academic Affairs, so we can actually use it as a learning model on campus.
What do you mean by sustainable practices – local foods?
Local foods, seasonal foods, foods grown worldwide in a sustainable manner. It will include green cleaning supplies, paper products, equipment that is Energy Star-rated and hopefully a building that is a green-certified, LEED-certified building.
If you were head of the United Nations, what would you do?
The No. 1 priority from my standpoint would be to attend to the Earth. This is the No. 1 thing now facing mankind. I hope the technology and the desire of the people of the Earth to change intersect sometime soon.
What’s your favorite Montana body of water?
Well, as someone who has competitively raced canoes, both flat water and white water for over 25 years, I have two places: the Blackfoot River for white water and Twin Lakes in the Big Hole.
What’s your favorite local food source?
Personally, the Farmer’s Market and the Good Food Store.
-- Interview and photography by Winona Sorensen