Steady Resolve
When I spoke to Sam Luppino, Co-Owner and President of White Oak Construction, he was lying in a hospital bed in Cleveland, Ohio. He was tired and admittedly didn’t feel quite like himself during our conversation. Nevertheless, he was happy to share details of his story with me. After all, while at the hospital waiting for a looming surgery, what else can be on one’s mind?
Back in 2024, Luppino was diagnosed with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, an incurable lung disease that required a double lung transplant. After months of waiting on a transplant list, Luppino received the call he had been waiting for in mid-March. After making the five-hour journey to Cleveland from his home in the Indianapolis area and spending hours more waiting at the clinic, doctors informed him that the lungs they had received were not quite the perfect match. Dry runs like this are common with lung transplants and are encouraging signs in the pursuit of appropriate medical care. Still, with family pouring in from Plainfield and Brownsburg with their support, a false alarm felt a tad disappointing.
A few days later, Luppino was called back to the clinic for a second time, which amounted to another dry run. By this point, however, Luppino had temporarily relocated to Cleveland and wouldn’t need to turn around for another long car ride. Around his hectic schedule, he has still found plenty of time to chat about his disease, family, business, life lessons and realigning his attention since his diagnosis.
“It’s more of an emotional pain that you’re going through,” says Luppino of living with IPF. “Knowing that you can’t do the things that you’ve done your entire life. It made me realize that a lot of the things that I thought were so important are minute compared to the things that are actually important.”
With Luppino’s focus shifting to his medical needs, he has not been able to be as hands-on as usual at the office. His team picked up the slack, with a show-must-go-on mentality that has provided peace of mind to Luppino as he navigates a new, nerve-wracking moment in his life. His oldest son, David, in his early forties, is an employee at White Oak and has impressed Luppino, not only with the company, but with how David has supported Luppino over the months. “If I call him and say, ‘David, I’m having a problem with something,’ he’ll drop everything and be at our house,” Luppino says. “It’s unbelievable how he’s stepped up to the plate.”
Luppino also gives lots of credit to his business partner, Dave Wilson, who he says has “done an amazing job” continuing on with Luppino out of the office.
Luppino’s absence from work, where he now provides general oversight of White Oak’s operations, as of late has been difficult, but he has been taken aback by the overwhelming support of individuals at the company.
“The number of personal emails and text messages that I received from my employees wishing me well,” said Luppino, “it’s emotional and humbling.”
Luppino has cultivated an environment of mutual respect and trust with his team, allowing for smooth transitions in such unprecedented moments for the company. He echoes many mantras and lessons about communication, hard work and fair treatment that he has picked up over the years, from self-help books on management to coaching advice from the late Notre Dame football icon Lou Holtz. For Luppino, it all overlaps and not only keeps White Oak thriving, but has become direly important over the last couple of years in his personal life.
As he faces a life-saving operation and leans significantly on his support system, Luppino stresses a three-step guide to healthy business, healthy relationships and a healthy soul.
“Do the right thing, give one hundred per cent, and treat people the way you’d want to be treated,” Luppino says. “You do those three things, and you’re going to be successful at everything in life.”
