Nov. 8, 2022, GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- The GRCC Library and Learning Commons is equipped with everything students need to be academically successful: computers, printers, study space, textbook reserves and numerous book, journal and video collections.
It also has a hard-working third-shift custodian who doubles as an in-house artist, although Mark Fortuna laughs when he’s described that way.
Still, in any given week, visitors to the building that he’s cleaned for a decade-plus now are likely to be greeted by a large whiteboard adorned with his latest artistic work, even as they walk on his carefully cleaned carpets and work in his lovingly cared-for building.
And any conversation with Fortuna makes it clear that he takes painstaking pride in what he does as a custodian and an artist.
A graduate of Union High School, Fortuna had a chance to attend Kendall College of Art and Design after graduation, but, as he says, life got in the way, and he went straight into the workforce instead.
After a spell stocking shelves on the overnight shift at a local grocery store, he landed a job at GRCC. It took some doing, he said, despite the fact that both his mom, Lorraine, and his dad, Dave, were legendary GRCC employees, also working on the custodial side of things.
“I think the college didn’t want to be accused of showing favoritism by hiring me,” he recalled with a smile of that interview process two decades ago now. “It took a little bit, and I really had to jump through some hoops. But I landed my first job here, and it’s been great to be part of the GRCC family.”
Although his dad passed away soon after retiring from GRCC after a battle with pancreatic cancer, Fortuna said the lessons learned from him, and from his mom, have stuck with him and guide him daily in his work on campus.
“From him and from my mom I got a real strong work ethic,” he said. “I saw them just do their jobs, go to work and do your job. Really, my dad worked two jobs for most of my life. My mom worked and was president of our union. I’ve always felt a responsibility to live up to the examples they set.”
He approaches his art with a similar resolve.
“I take it seriously,” he said. “The whiteboard drawings I do at GRCC mean a lot to me, and I love it when people enjoy them. It's also very relaxing to me. Almost therapeutic. If I have a day off, that's what I'm pretty much going to be doing. I'll just sit there and draw for hours. And it makes me happy to draw stuff and when people really get enjoyment out of it, that’s great, right?”
Although Fortuna prefers to work with pencils and pens, he said he has enjoyed the challenge of having to use markers for his whiteboard drawings. His work on campus also has a lighter feel to it than some of his other work he said, most of which he posts on social media.
“It's only been in the last few years that I've really shown my work,” he said. “I've been content to just do drawings for friends and family. You have to be ready when you put yourself out there.”
Fortuna credits his colleagues in the Library and Learning Commons for encouraging him to put himself out there via the whiteboard exhibitions.
“The people that work at the library are so great,” he said. “It’s just a great community of people that work there and make my job very enjoyable. When they gave me the opportunity to do some drawing on the whiteboard, I wasn’t sure, but they encouraged me, and I’m grateful they did.”
The trust that his colleagues have in him is not something he takes lightly, and daily he does his best to make his colleagues’ workspace the best it can be.
“In some ways, my custodial work is a bit like my art,” he said. “There’s details to it; you work hard at it, and when it’s done, you can look at it with satisfaction. I wouldn't trade it, that's for sure.”
When he’s not cleaning and not making art, Fortuna stays busy with his family; his wife, Tonya, and children Mason, Shea and Brooklyn. His pride in his family is evident as he speaks about them.
“Mason will be graduating from Grand Valley in business and finance; Shea is in her second year at Calvin for computer science, and Brooklyn is a sophomore at Byron Center High School,” he noted. “And Tonya works at Railside Assisted Living Center as a resident caregiver.”
He also is proud of his brother Ben, the youngest in the family, who works in management in manufacturing, and his brother Dave, who is a custodian for GRCC at the Leslie Tassell MTEC.
He laughs when asked about the fact that four of the five members of his Fortuna family found themselves working at GRCC.
“It is a bit unusual I guess,” he said. “But GRCC is a great place to be, and, hopefully, we’ve all played a little part in making it even better.”
This story was reported by Phil de Haan.