Richard Piccolo Honored by University

Richard Piccolo, the BYU custodial department’s area supervisor for the Benson and Nicholes buildings, was chosen to receive the Fred A. Schwendiman award this coming August.

Piccolo was raised a Boston sports fanatic in Watertown, Massachusetts. After high school, his older sister, who was a convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, convinced him to attend BYU. He knew nothing about the Church at the time, nor did he know that his decision to come to BYU would change his life.

“After attending BYU for two years and being fellowshipped and taught by hundreds of eager Latter-day Saints, I was baptized on May 17, 1970, in a font that used to be in the JKB,” said Piccolo. During his time at BYU, Piccolo also met his future wife, Alice, when he was assigned to be her home teacher. By the end of 2017, all eight of Piccolo’s children will have graduated from a BYU campus, and his oldest son is a professor in the College of Life Sciences at BYU Provo.

Piccolo has worked at BYU for 37 years, and he works hard to coordinate all the cleaning in the Benson and Nicholes buildings. “The Benson is used seven days a week,” he explained, “with six wards that meet here each Sunday, so it is challenge to keep the building clean.”

The Schwendiman award honors Piccolo for his great contributions to the university: his dedication, his integrity, and his respect for all individuals. Piccolo was surprised to learn of his nomination and attributes his success to the hard-working team of full-time and student employees under his supervision.

“Any recognition I receive,” he said, “is mostly because of the dedicated work of our team of custodians, full and part time, who strive to maintain a high standard of cleanliness day after day. It has been a great blessing to me and my family to be employed at the Lord’s University.”