[2] Raised in the Highbridge neighborhood of The Bronx, his family moved to Yonkers, New York, in his early teen years.

He played intercollegiate ice hockey on the City College of New York and Rutgers University teams.

He received a Rotary National Space Achievement Stellar Team Award (2002) for his work on the International Space Station’s (ISS’s) Science Window and the Window Observational Research Facility (WORF), He was also the recipient of the City College of New York's Townsend Harris Medal (1993), and the Cardinal Hayes High School Cardinal Francis Joseph Spellman Award (1993).

As an undergraduate, he received the City College of New York Class of 1938 Athletic Service Award and is believed to be the first person of Italian origin to fly in space, being decorated accordingly by the president of Italy in 1999.

From April 1981 to December 1983, he served as the Meteorological Officer aboard the amphibious assault ship USS NASSAU [LHA-4].

From December 1985 to December 1986, he served as Commanding Officer of Oceanographic Unit 4 embarked in the naval survey vessel USNS CHAUVENET [T-AGS-29], conducting hydrographic and oceanographic surveys of the Makassar and Sunda Straits and the Flores and Java Seas, Indonesia.

The primary mission objective was accomplished with the successful deployment of a Defense Support Program (DSP) satellite.

The crew’s power conservation efforts paid off on flight day 6 when it appeared there finally was enough oxygen to last the rest of the mission; however, the mission was cut short as Minimum Duration Flight (MDF) when a second navigational Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) was powered up for redundancy and immediately failed and (CAPCOM) and fellow classmate Jan Davis dejectedly called the Commander Fred Gregory with the bad news, "“Fred, we’ve run out of ideas on IMU-2.

We have declared IMU-2 failed.” ATLANTIS (OV-104) returned with only 2 of 3 IMU’s (#'s 1 and 3) operating to a contingency landing the next day on lakebed runway 05 at Edwards Air Force Base, California, on December 1, 1991, completing 110 orbits of the Earth.

The six-day mission’s primary objective was accomplished with his deployment of a NASA Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS-F) on flight day 1.

This astronomical instrument for studying stellar evolution scanned the local vicinity of our Milky Way galaxy and recorded the low-energy X-ray emanations believed to originate from the plasma remnants of an ancient supernova.

Crewmate Greg Harbaugh (EV1) and Runco (EV2) also became the 47th and 48th Americans to walk in space during a 4.5-hour spacewalk designed to evaluate the limits of human performance during extravehicular activities (EVA) in anticipation of the construction of the ISS.

Of Runco, his spacewalking crew mate commented, “Mario was the most naturally skilled EVA guy I ever saw.

Mario had large strong hands, which are a huge asset for EVA, and he was a hockey player so he had tremendous endurance.

I find it curious that he never got a chance to display his skills on HST or ISS.” Lastly, in what was called the "Physics of Toys In Space", which has since become a popular children's educational video, the crew also demonstrated how everyday toys behave in space to an interactive audience of elementary school students across the United States.

For the deploy of the Shuttle Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for Astronomy (SPARTAN)-207/Inflatable Antenna Experiment Runco was the Remote Manipulator System (Robotic Arm) operator.

His foresight in having high resolution and low light level photography equipment and a high intensity spotlight added to the mission’s suite of photography equipment and insisting that a second overhead window rather than a blank be installed in the second of the twin SpaceHab modules, salvaged this experiment when its laser Attitude Measuring System (AMS), also installed in the payload bay, failed shortly after deploy of the satellite.

He used these assets and his photographic expertise to capture video of the STU as Endeavour tracked and flew astern of it for several days.

Principal investigators were able to use the video retrieved by Runco in lieu of the AMS data to complete their evaluations.

He also captured some additional "Physics of Toys" scenes for a sequel to the original STS-54 educational video and subsequently made several appearances on the children’s television show Sesame Street (Episodes 3696**, 3698, 3731, 3776, and 3785) in 1998 for the “Slimey to the Moon” series during Season 29 (1997-98).

In addition, he helped with the design and facilitated the integration of several other WORF payloads including EarthKAM, IMAX for the filming of Toni Myers’ last film, “A Beautiful Planet", Nanoracks, ISS SERVIR Environmental Research and Visualization System (I-SERV), and Chiba University’s (Japan) “Meteor” observation study.

Schultz, Christopher J., Timothy J. Lang, Skye Leak, Mario Runco, & William Stefanov.

A Technique for Automated Detection of Lightning in Images and Video from the International Space Station for Scientific Understanding and Validation.

Schultz, Christopher J., Timothy J. Lang, Skye Leake, Mario Runco, Jr., and Richard J. Blakeslee.

Basic Optical Theory Applied to Windows (NASA/SP-2010-3407 - Human Integration Design Handbook, Appendix C), Baseline ed.

(Approved for Public Release) 9.

Proceedings of the 30th International Symposium on Remote Sensing of Environment (ISRSE), Information for Risk Management and Sustainable Development, Pages 737-740; Honolulu, Hawaii; November 10-14, 2003 (Symposium organized by the East-West Center [EWC], Honolulu, Hawaii; the International Society of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing [ISPRS], Bethesda, Maryland [American Chapter]; and the International Center for Remote Sensing of Environment, Tucson, Arizona) [ISBN 0-932913-10-5].

International Space Station Cupola Scratch Pane Window Optical Test Results (The Aerospace Corp. Assessment JA3138, Publication #: ATR-2003(7828)-1), Houston, TX 77058: NASA-JSC Contract No.

NAS9-00090, Flight System Safety and Mission Assurance Division, NASA - Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center 77058-3696, January 17, 2003.

Vaupel, D.E., and Prince, K.R., Koehler, A.J., and Runco, Mario, 1977, Potentiometric surfaces of the upper glacial and Magothy aquifers and selected streamflow statistics, 1943-1972, on Long Island, New York: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 77-528, 23 p. (Approved for Public Release) http://pubs.usgs.gov/ha/ha730/ch_m/M-references.html