By Bill Clark
Image of Allison and Tony Lupo from family archives
Anthony Rocco Lupo wears many hats – all with distinction and all well-fitted.
And, despite being a native New Yorker, none of his hats has a Mafia label.
Let me list a few of those hats in no particular order and we’ll discuss them individually a bit later
1 – Professor.
2 – Advisor.
3 – Family man.
4 – Political party leader.
5 – Fulbright winner (three times).
6 – Church leader.
7 – Record-holding weightlifter. Member of Clark’s Gym team – sharing success on teams that won both national and international titles in 2022.
8 – Certified weightlifting official.
9 – Accepted as member of the elite Good Ol’ Boys’ Club.
10 – Currently in nomination for the Perche Creek Yacht Club.
We’ll start at the beginning.
Tony Lupo was born March 13, 1966, in upstate Auburn, New York, the oldest of five sons of Rocco Lupo, an engineer, and Diane, a stay-at-home mom until the kids were all in school, then becoming a retailer.
All five sons have earned their own set of hats as engineers, FBI agent, investments, aerospace.
Tony graduated from Auburn High School in 1984 where he wrestled for two years, but admits to being in very few school activities. “I left few footprints there,” he recently said over lunch. He had no plans to wear any of the hats he now wears with pride.
He moved on to Cayuga Community College for two years before taking his associate degree in mathematics to the State University of New York (SUNY) at Oswego.
Along the way, he had done research on the 1974 wave of 148 tornadoes that swept across the southern half of the nation in a two-day disaster that claimed 319 lives and injured 5,484. That research led to a new direction in Tony’s life.
He majored in meteorology at Oswego, graduating with a degree in atmospheric science in 1988 and pursued a job as a TV weather person or a role with the National Weather Service.
He spent a year working in a grocery store.
As a senior at Oswego, Tony had met a fellow student from Vestal, New York, named Allison. They were married in September, 1988, and it was Allison who told her grocery store clerk husband: “Go to graduate school.”
And he did. The rest is history.
Tony was accepted at Purdue University in the fall of 1989, graduating with a master’s degree in atmospheric science in 1991 and a doctorate in 1995. After two years of post-doctoral work at SUNY-Albany, he came to Mizzou in August, 1997, hired by Roger Mitchell as an assistant professor of Atmospheric Science in the College of Agriculture, Foods and Natural Resources – commonly known as Ag School.
He became a full professor in 2008 and today teaches five classes a year – two in the fall and three in the spring. You can see three of his former students daily on TV – Matt Beckwith, John Ross and Tim Schmidt. Many others have moved on to positions elsewhere. One former student, Chris Steward, is the Air Force meteorologist that determines if, when, and where Presidential flights take place.
Tony has become known for his long-range forecasting ability – more than two weeks out. That ability recently won him a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Weather Association. He is in constant demand as a speaker – a local, living answer to the Farmer’s Almanac, and far more accurate.
His outlook for the coming winter months?
“About the same as last year. Plenty of snow in January, February, March.”
And for those of us who put faith in the width of black bands on fall woolly worms, Tony announced that most have wide black bands – the same as last year – which means a fairly hard winter ahead.
His three Fulbright scholarships have taken him three times to Russia where he both taught and learned – in 2004, 2014/15 and in 2017.
Three hats – teacher, advisor and Fulbright professor.
# Next hat – that of political leadership.
Tony grew up in a Democratic family and in a Democratic society – but has been a staunch Conservative since college days at SUNY Albany in 1996. It was not until 2010 that he became an active member of the local Republican Party, active in the Pachyderm Club, and since 2020, the chairman of the Boone County Republican Central Committee. He recently was elected president of the state Pachyderms and as Second Vice-President of the national Pachyderms.
In his role as county leader, he made a blind call to this writer, a well-known liberal Democrat, about the possibility of bringing our two parties together to find a level of respect and understanding that would lead to better government locally, statewide and nationally.
Called the Unnamed Committee for Political Understanding and Compromise, the committee was a philosophical success, but has been put on hold because neither local party will support the concept.
That hat of political common sense is momentarily on the closet shelf.
From that Unnamed Committee relationship, Tony discovered an opportunity to return to his teenage days as a weightlifter.
He had been a competitor in the Show-Me State Games a few years back and remembered Ol’ Clark as the official who twice turned him down for rules violations.
As we often discussed the iron game, Tony decided to get serious about returning to competition.
He dusted off his lifting hat and now wears it proudly as a member of Clark’s Gym Team, which has dominated the United States All-round Weightlifting Association for the past three years. He has become a U.S. recordholder n the 110-kilo class of the 55-59 age group – and has recently become a record holder in the British Strength Athletes’ Guild as a member of the gym team’s international group.
He recently earned his USAWA official’s card and is certified to officiate at the national level.
Among his better lifts – a 1,250-pound back lift, 330 bench press, a 1,400-lb. harness lift.
Two hats of great importance – which he wears interchangeably every day of his life – the hats of faith and of family. Born into a devout Catholic home, he remains dedicated to his religious base – which has been Our Lady of Lourdes in Columbia since the family’s arrival here.
His wife, Allison, is the head of the kitchen staff at Lourdes Elementary and Middle School and both are active in many church functions. Tony often serves as a reader and an usher – and any other role needing a volunteer.
Our Lady of Lourdes remains a major part of the Lupo Family which has produced three successful young women, all of whom attended Hickman High School.
Mary, an MU grad, is currently a grant writer for Washington University in St. Louis; Grace (Harris), a UM Science and Technology grad, works for the Missouri Department of Natural Resources in Jefferson City and is the mother of the Lupos’ first grandchild, Cecilia; Kathryn lives in Rochester, Minn., where she works for Lenscrafters.
Once a month. Tony dons his Good Ol’ Boys hat and will be doing the program for that notable group in April, explaining to them why their griping about weather is due to change nothing. He is awaiting the arrival of the new hat from the Perche Creek Yacht Club, a special crowd that takes care to scrutinize its membership – having refused admittance to Osama Bin Laden and revoked the membership of Quin Snyder.
And now you know how guy can wear 10 hats – successfully.
