Each homecoming, the University of Montana Alumni Association (UMAA) honors outstanding alumni with Distinguished Alumni Awards. University alumni and friends are invited to nominate, on an individual basis, a graduate or former student for this award.
Recipients of the award are individuals who have distinguished themselves in a particular field and who have brought honor to the University, the state or the nation. The UMAA Board of Directors Awards Committee focuses on career achievement, professional honors, professional membership/directorship, community service and University of Montana or UMAA recognition or service in selecting recipients.
Among the 2023 Distinguished Alumni Award recipients is Paul Carpino, class of 1954.
Carpino is a social work graduate, but describes himself as “more a social justice and peace activist than a traditional social worker.” He worked for decades on behalf of underrepresented and underserved populations in Montana, Colorado, Utah, Nevada and across the country. He preferred systemic changes that addressed the root causes of hunger and homelessness and viewed direct service programs as ineffective. He taught low-income people how to speak up for themselves and press their issues with those in power at the local and statewide levels. He was instrumental in organizing the Montana State Low Income Organization,which became a force in changing laws so that programs to assist the poor became more accommodating to them. He and two other runners founded the Run for Peace, a relay from New York City to Seattle. Their mission was to promote nuclear disarmament. Carpino believed the nuclear weapons industry unfairly affected low-income residents of the manufacturing and testing sites.
