Dear XUNICEF
Our dear colleague and friend Dario Loda passed away on 29th October in Italy. We are terribly sad, but we wish also to celebrate his amazing life and work at UNICEF.
Dario's last position with UNICEF was at HQs in New York. Prior to that he worked for UNICEF in Lebanon and Burundi (where I met him in 1994) and in many countries in Africa and Asia.
Grateful if you could share this online tribute in the XUNICEF newsletter to inform our colleagues and for them to share their memories and messages
Many thanks and all the best.
Marilena Viviani
Click here to leave an entry on the Memory Wall.
Dario Loda PhD
April 1st, 1947 * October 29th, 2025
Brescia
I cannot speak, but I can listen.
I cannot be seen, but I can be heard.
So as you stand upon a shore gazing at a beautiful sea,
As you look upon a flower and admire its simplicity,
Remember me.
Remember me in your heart:
Your thoughts and your memories
Of the times we loved,
The times we cried,
The times we fought,
The times we laughed.
For if you always think of me,
I will never have gone.
Margaret Mead
Obituary
Dario passed away peacefully on 29th October 2025, in his hometown Brescia, Italy, where he recently returned, after a life spent in many countries and places all over the world, including his beloved Manhattan, New York, where many of us had the joy to work with him or just to share nice and special time together.
Dario touched the heart of so many of us and this space is for his family, friends and colleagues, all over the world, to share memories of Dario and celebrate his amazing life.
Please contribute with your thoughts in any language you like, put pictures if you wish so, or music, or paintings.
Dario loved life, people, and he loved beauty, art, culture and music so much.
This Online Tribute is free and easy to access, please circulate the link with Dario's family and friends if you wish. It will help us to feel connected and keep Dario even closer to our hearts.
The Funeral Ceremony for Dario was held on 31th October 2025 with a Holy Mass celebrated in Brescia, Italy, his hometown, with his close relatives and friends, accompanied by the music loved by Dario, the G.
F. Handel "Ombra Mai Fu, sung by a tenor.
I am just seeing this and am devastated as John Spring, my wife and I were talking about Dario just a couple of weeks ago. I met Dario more than 40 years ago (so some of the details might be hazy) when he joined UNICEF, from another UN Agency in Angola, as Resident Programme Officer for Sierra Leone. He took over from John who had been Programme Officer for Sierra Leone and The Gambia based in Dakar and replaced me as head of the Freetown Office.
ReplyDeleteA quiet, humble person, Dario was cultured in a way that made him seem like he was from a different planet to this poor farm boy from New England. I found it hard to believe that people like him actually existed outside of the movies 😊 One of the first things I found strange was that he brought his chef with him from Angola when there were plenty of cooks in Freetown. A few days after the chef arrived, the Finance Officer was in my office when Dario walked in wondering where he could buy white gloves for his chef? This completely confounded Loline and I but fortunately, my wife walked in and she had the answer, Obviously the only place in Freetown that you could buy white gloves was a bridal shop! She went to a bridal shop, bought a pair of long white glove, took them to a tailor, had then cut down and an hour later Dario had his gloves, I doubt he ever knew where they came from!
Well, I quickly learned the difference between a Chef and a cook the first time Dario invited us to dinner. His dinners became legendary at a time when just getting, never mind preparing, good food was very difficult in Freetown. We loved him dearly as did all of the Freetown staff.
May his soul rest in eternal peace.