Angelo Luppino leaves mark on community

IRON BELT, Wis. - The man who brought the color pink to his Iron Belt construction business, Angelo Luppino, died this week of cancer at 82.

He was born and raised in Hurley, graduating from the Hurley High School in 1952. He married Nancy Nelson in 1953 and they had two children, a son, Paul, and a daughter, Karen.

Luppino met his wife on a blind date and knew from the moment he met her that she was the one.

"He met me and that was it," she said. They had a long and happy marriage of 62 years.

Luppino started his working career as an apprentice bricklayer and later began his own construction business, Angelo Luppino Inc., in 1965.

The construction business was a profitable and busy career, with projects including the Kmart Plaza in Ironwood, the David G. Lindquist Student Center at Gogebic Community College, Powderhorn Chalet, Ewen-Trout Creek K-12 school and many more in and outside the area.

An aspect to the company's success has been its memorable pink trucks and construction equipment. The original idea came from Nancy.

"When we were first in business, we had a yellow pickup truck and I had told Angelo that we couldn't have the same color as everybody else," Nancy Luppino said. "So we decided to do a color that nobody else would imitate and that's how we came up with the pink."

And now the pink is used as one of the company's marketing tools, which no one forgets.

Luppino was an encouraging person and had a scholarship funded for the Hurley High School encouraging girls to go into the construction field.

He was active in the community as president of the Hurley Chamber of Commerce, a member of the Hurley Lions Club, Hurley Education Foundation and Salem Lutheran Church.

Angelo initiated the Builders Construction Exchange in Hurley and Ironwood.

His many hobbies involved the outdoors, including hunting and fishing. One of his favorite hobbies was building ponds on his property.

"He would stock the ponds with fish and he loved to have little kids come over and go fishing," Nancy said.

His daughter said he liked inviting people over with small kids so they could go fishing. "He would teach them how to bait a hook, fillet fish and have a shore lunch next to the ponds and cook it over an open fire. He really enjoyed sharing his love of fishing with other people," she said.

Karen also shared that he would teach kids how to make maple syrup, from learning to tap the trees, to tasting the sap, to tasting the final product.

"He just really enjoyed teaching people how to do things for themselves," she said.

Luppino battled cancer 22 years ago, as well. Nancy said he made a point of visiting people who had cancer to encourage them and keep on with their treatments.

She said that was the type of person he was, generous and thoughtful and always willing to help someone out.

"He was a very kind person. He has given so much to so many people and has always helped them," Nancy said. "If someone was in trouble, he'd bail them out of jail or give them money, whatever they needed. He was a very honest man."

Luppino died Wednesday at home. His funeral will be Saturday at 11 a.m. at Salem Lutheran Church in Ironwood. Visitation will be from 9 a.m. until the time of service and a luncheon is planned for after the service in the fellowship hall.