Michael died March 13, 2023, of pancreatic cancer in Verona, N.J., where he had recently moved after spending the previous 25 years in Baltimore. 

Michael arrived with the Class of ’67 from the Kansas City suburb of Overland Park, a graduate of Shawnee Mission East High School. At Princeton, he majored in the English department and the Program in American Civilization. He wrote his thesis for Professor Laurence B. Holland. Michael’s senior honors thesis, titled “The Negro in White Literature,” grew out of a two-year American civilization program project to publish a bibliography of all the documents and literature in the Princeton campus libraries relating to the African American experience. Michael made lifelong friendships with classmates John Godine, Scott Goldsmith, George Bassett, Anson Wright, Rob Garfield, and Mike Greenstein. He was a baritone soloist in the Footnotes and continued to attend all reunions of the group.

After graduation, Michael earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in American studies at the University of Kansas. His career path began with work as an educator and activist in the labor movement and progressive social causes, primarily with the Union of Operating Engineers. In 1990, he turned to health policy and spent time in the public sector, with Maryland Medicaid; and the private sector, with Aetna. His work helped develop the analytic methods of data mining that we now call “big data” analytics.

In 2005, Michael married Kathe P. Fox, a public health professional. He is survived by her, a son Nicholas (and his mother Kathy Clark), and one grandchild. The Class of 1967 remembers Michael as one of the friendliest, most kind members of our undergraduate years.