Michael Van Fossen

Obituary For Michael Van Fossen

Michael G. Van Fossen, retired Academic Librarian and Educator, passed December 27, 2024 in Durham, NC at the age of 78. He was born October 27, 1946 in Dover, Ohio to Glenn and Martha Walters Van Fossen and spent his early years in New Philadelphia, Ohio. His family later moved to Anaheim, California where he spent his adolescence, graduated from high school where he was named the most outstanding student in his senior year class, and then entered the University of California-Irvine. Afterwards, he entered the military and served in the United States Army-Europe in former West Germany where he worked in military intelligence during the Cold War era. Having received an undergraduate degree in Political Science and graduating Magna Cum Laude, he received a Master's degree in Library and Information Science from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He worked for almost 25 years as the International and State Documents Librarian in Davis Library at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and served as the subject librarian for international studies; the curriculum in peace, war, and defense; and political science. He also taught at the UNC School of Library and Information Science where he advised and mentored many graduate students. He served on the North Carolina Library Association and was a member of the Executive Board of the Government Resources Section. He was the Associate Editor for the North Carolina Libraries Journal, and the chair of the journal’s 2007 Style Manual Revision Committee. For many years, he was associated with UCLA's Hispanic American Periodicals Index (HAPI) and provided bibliographic citations to the contents of scholarly journals published around the world on Latin America, the Caribbean, and Latinx communities in the United States. He retired in 2012.

He is survived by his partner of 42 years and husband of 10 years, John Robert "Bob" Newsome, Jr., of Durham, North Carolina; sister, Marsha V. Weaver, of Pikesville, MD; brother, Hal Van Fossen (Mary), of Eau Claire, WI; niece, Sallie Weaver (Saverio Coletta), of Pikesville, MD; nephews, Bradley Van Fossen, of Biddeford, ME and Benjamin Van Fossen (Amber) of Madison, WI; and cousins, Lori Neal Phillips and Bob Phillips, of Durham, NC.

A memorial service and celebration of life will be held in the spring of 2025.