Refugee with his family (originally from Isera) in Dornbirn, in Vorarlberg during the Great War, he returned to his city after 1918, to complete his studies there until the end of high school.

At 19, he chose Milan for the university, convinced that this "leap from the province" could benefit his future: he earned two degrees, and Agostino Gemelli retained him as Administrative Deputy Secretary of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart.

During the years of the Resistance, he worked in Brianza and Milan to shake consciences and organize the ranks of the new party of the Christian Democrats, of which he became the Milanese secretary.

He collaborated from Rome in the reconstruction of Italy through UNRRA-CAASAS plans to give new homes to millions of homeless.

He left his political life in 1976 to deal with the Italian Alpine Club, of which he was president from 1971 to 1980, and with the problems of international volunteering.