This custodian is super: no-pun-in-tendo!
David Howard, 62, has been the custodian at Johnson Primary School in Tucson, Arizona, for the past 20 years. But the elementary school students know him for much more than keeping their classrooms clean. The kids simply call him Mario.
”I would tell the kids, ‘If you behave and listen to the teachers and the staff, my friend Mario will come to school,’” Howard said.
Howard has been dressing up as the popular Nintendo character for the past 10 years, bringing smiles to students' faces and excitement to the school.
“Kids started coming to school because they didn't want to miss Mario,” Howard’s daughter, Stephanie Howard, told "Good Morning America." “My dad never called in sick or took time off. He always had a great work ethic and would take pride in his work -- no matter what he was doing."
Howard said it all started in 2009 when he didn’t have a costume for a Halloween party at the school. But he realized he had all the materials needed to make a homemade Mario outfit. The kids loved it so much, he said, that he began wearing the costume periodically.
“He would dress up randomly so they would be surprised,” Stephanie Howard added.
Howard began wearing the costume about once every two months. The beloved custodian would go above and beyond in all ways, including flying kites with students during recess.
“A lot of the kids don't have parents that have the time or resources to take them kite flying,” Stephanie Howard said. “It’s an experience he missed out on as a child and he didn’t want the same for the kids at the school.”
So when Howard retired last week, Johnson Primary principal Rose Cota worked with his family and friends to put together a special send-off, complete with cake, posters and thank you cards. Wearing his Mario costume one last time, Howard walked around the school as students and faculty lined the halls to say their goodbyes.
“Every time I would come to work, they would ask where’s Mario? I’m going to miss their smiles,” Howard said.
Many students were in tears as they said their goodbyes to the caring janitor who had become a staple at the elementary school.
(MORE: This teacher had her whole kindergarten class sign her dress)
(MORE: Retiring janitor is moved to tears as children make him 'king' for a day)
