PASTA AND SAUCE

He cut sugarcane on his South Carolina family farm at the age of seven. He worked on military vehicles for the U.S. Army as a young man. He served food in the Capitol and on the National Mall in Washington.

But these days, 51-year-old Marcus Thompson — known fondly by students as "Mr. Marcus" or "Pasta Man" — spends his days manning the create-your-own pasta station at the South Campus Dining Hall, whipping up his pasta creations with a dash of humor and light-hearted conversation with customers.

"If I can't make you laugh, I'm gonna make you smile," Thompson said.

Although he retired in 1987, Thompson joined the university dining staff in 2009 out of an urge to stay active.

"I do a lot of cooking on Saturday and Sunday in my own home, there's nothing hard about it," he said. "If you like cooking, it's a job for you."

And in his two years behind the pasta station, Thompson made plenty of friends among his co-workers and the many customers who shuffle through the line each day.

"He's really funny and personable, and he makes waiting in the long line worth it," sophomore history major Tacy Lambiase said.

Thompson was born the seventh of nine children in Greenville, S.C., where each day started with a list of chores that were assigned by the older siblings.

His favorite job, Thompson said, was working in the sugarcane fields.

"I loved that, I loved cutting down sugarcane," Thompson said. "I tried to eat some of it and got sick."

And Thompson said he had plenty of mischievous fun with his brothers and sisters. He recalled holding secret water-balloon fights inside their apartment as soon as their parents left for work.

"What we would do was take the plastic, cover up the furniture, cover up the floor, and we'd start throwing water balloons at each other," he said.

But all evidence of the skirmish was already gone by the time his parents came home.

"It was like nothing ever happened in that house and that's how clean it was," Thompson said. "All we had to do when we got finished was drag the plastic onto the balcony and [let] the water run right on down [to] the ground."

Thompson moved with his family to Washington in 1968, and at Easton High School he played catcher and first base for the school baseball team and football at the Boys' Club. After graduating from high school, he worked on light-wheel vehicles and air conditioning and refrigeration for the U.S. Army. He said he had learned how to use tools as a child by asking around to his neighbors.

"A lot of what I learned was [from] older people," he said.

Thompson went on to work as an apprentice at Manhattan Auto in Rockville, and then he spent 12 years as a mechanic for a wastewater treatment center. He retired early to spend more time with his son, Kendall, who has spina bifida — a birth defect in which the spinal cord does not form completely.

Thompson described his son, who just turned 11 and is wheelchair-bound, as a caring and happy-go-lucky child.

"I know when I was feeling sick one time he wouldn't move — that's what you call compassionate," he said. "He's a lovable little kid."

Thompson said his favorite part about working at the dining hall is interacting with students and co-workers.

"Every job I have I put love into, that's called caring about what you do — not just the responsibilities of what you do but the caring part of what you do to help not just your station but other stations too," he said. "If you can give some advice to workers coming in, you can help them too with the experience that you have."

And Thompson has noticed that when he gives great customer service, the person he served may bring a friend the next time.

This was the case with Xaiver Franco, a sophomore kinesiology major, who brought his friend, journalism major Stacy Robinson, to experience the pasta station for the first time.

By the time the pair had made their way through the line, the "Pasta Man" had made a new fan.

"This is the first time I've gotten pasta, and I already know him," Robinson said.

gray@umdbk.com