Published June 2007
By Sally Kuzemchak for Penn Stater Magazine

Aldo Magazzeni grew his full bushy beard as a promise.  He was in rural Afghanistan in early 2004 helping create a water distribution system and vowed to shave only when the project was complete.  As the beard grew and one project turned into six, he decided to keep it—even after he returned home.  He says the beard reminds him of his work, and that the world, like his facial hair, ‘isn’t always neat and tidy.”

A successful real estate developer and entrepreneur who remains a partner in a small welding supply company, Magazzeni ’72 Bus took up mountain climbing 10 years ago, scaling peaks in Mexico, South America and Asia.  On his trips, he ventured into rural villages and helped build schools and churches.  Something changed in him.  “I felt like climbing had taken me here to do this work,” he says.  “I started to look at the world in a whole other way.”

He continued that work in places like Haiti and India, and then in 2003, the Iraq war began.  Angry and frustrated about the suffering he knew would accompany the conflict, he was reminded by a friend of a much-forgotten country:  Afghanistan.  At an age when many men are buying their trophy car, Magazzeni sold his ’88 BMW to fund his trip.  He worked with female prisoners in Kabul, supplying them with sewing machines and day care for their children.  And he built six water systems—using skills picked up in past construction work—that provided water to thousands.  Most recently, he helped develop a self-sustaining village for AIDS orphans in Africa.  “I love working with people to create a vision and empowering them to use their own skills,” he says.

Magazzeni whose wife, Anna, helps operate their 97-acre organic farm in Perkiomenville, Pa., is currently pondering his next project.  But his motivation needs no further contemplation.  “It’s a shame when we don’t know what’s going on in the world,” he says.  “In these places, you can see the grace of humanity clearer than anywhere else.”