Mohsen Abdel Fattah Younes

Mohsen Abdel Fattah Younes Saginaw Twp., Michigan
Beloved and devoted husband, father and grandfather passed away on November 7, 2025 at home at age 89 years. Son of the late Abdel Fattah El Hefney Younes and Naggea Marae, Mohsen was born on October 2, 1936 in Kafr Kela El Bab, El Santa, Gharbia Province, Egypt. His tremendous generosity, work ethic, sense of humor and intelligence will always be remembered and cherished.
A paramount focus of Mohsen's life was securing the education, health and prosperity of his family. Mohsen's parents had attained an elementary school level of formal education yet expected all of their children to achieve at least a bachelor's degree, whether they decided to have a career as a homemaker or working outside of the home. Mohsen is highly revered for working tirelessly to care for his mother and ensure the educational success of his five living siblings, after his father's early death at the age of 49 due to complications from a heat stroke on the family farm. Mohsen raised his own children with high expectations for their educational performance and attainment, supporting them along the way. Mohsen sought to reach the 40-year mark in his career at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, but retired after 38 years, at age 78, to care for his wife Carol while she recovered from cancer while he simultaneously rebuilt his health from chronic lymphocytic leukemia. He was a doting, conscientious, compassionate and tender caregiver for Carol for many years. Taking care of his family was his highest calling, in ways small and large, from mowing his children's lawns so they could focus on school to sponsoring their education and planning for the future success and well-being of his treasured grandchild who lit up his life.
Mohsen worked hard to advance his own education and learning, and was the first in his family to attain higher education. He completed high school in Alexandria, Egypt, approximately 90 miles away from his hometown village which had only an elementary school at the time. He helped to pay his way for school by tutoring other youth, including the children of his school principal, and was the proud captain of his high school soccer team. Mohsen went on to earn his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science from the University of Alexandria in Egypt. Mohsen was awarded a prestigious Fulbright Scholarship, which brought him to Lansing, Michigan in the United States in 1963 to attend Michigan State University for his PhD in Agriculture. He met the love of his life, Carol Mae Berkey, when she was working at an Arabic grocery store in Lansing where she also attended the university. He declared to his friends that day that he would marry that beautiful woman! After Mohsen completed his PhD, they were married in Egypt in 1971 and again several years later in the United States.
Mohsen devoted his career to expanding opportunities in higher education and developing agricultural solutions for hunger and economic development. As part of the Egyptian-American Scholars distinguished student delegation in the early 1970s, Mohsen helped persuade Egyptian presidents Gamal Abdel Nasser and Anwar El-Sadat to build public universities in twenty-one provinces that were without institutes of higher education, strengthen international relations for U.S.-Egypt scholarly programs, and invest in graduate scholarships. He researched sources of vegetable protein suitable to the North African climate and introduced soybeans to Egypt as a healthy, affordable alternative to the meat-based diet. In the 1970s, Mohsen was part of a research team that discovered a massive aquifer, named the Chad aquifer, under the western Egyptian desert, which spurred a multi-billion dollar infrastructure project expanding agricultural production by 3.5 million acres. After returning to Michigan to visit his inlaws, Mohsen toured a mushroom farm in Metamora, MI to learn about mushroom production and was offered a job managing the farm on the spot. After working there for several years, Mohsen began his career in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where he served as a supervisor for teams grading the quality of bean and corn crops for distribution across the United States and for export abroad in Saginaw, Michigan and Toledo, Ohio. His foresight, expertise in agriculture, and uncanny gift of negotiation gave his work with the U.S. Department of Agriculture a global reach, when the Washington, D.C. headquarters sent him on special assignments to advance international compliance with agricultural trade regulations and to help modernize agricultural systems by working in partnership with more than a dozen countries and their U.S. embassies across the Middle East, North Africa, Asia and Europe.
Mohsen had a vibrant green thumb, and took great pleasure in creating and nurturing a Garden of Eden in his nearly half-acre yard in Saginaw Township, where he planted hundreds of trees including a fruit tree orchard, fruit- and flower-bearing shrubs, a large vegetable garden, roses and many other varieties of perennial flowers, and beautiful aquatic plants in his two koi fish ponds. When his wife was ill, he expanded his garden to feed her more fresh, health-promoting vegetables and herbs. His love of nature, the environment and creating peaceful outdoor havens inspired the same interests in his children and grandchild.
Surviving are two daughters, Mona Munroe-Younis and Amal Younis; one grandson, Sebastian Munroe; three sisters, Badria, Madeha and his brother's wife Samia; nearly 30 nephews and nieces in Egypt and the United States; and dear friends and extended family. Mohsen was preceded in death by his wife, parents and siblings Isa Younes (toddler), Abdel Rahman Younes, Hanem Younes, Elham Younes, and Madeha Younes (infant).
Funeral Service will take place at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, November 10, 2025 at The Snow Funeral Home, 3775 N. Center Rd., (between Shattuck and McCarty). Imam Musa Abdalla will officiate, with interment to follow in Oakwood Cemetery. Friends may visit at the funeral home where the family will be present on Monday from 9:00 a.m. until the time of service. In lieu of flowers, those planning an expression of sympathy may wish to consider making life-saving donations to the UN World Food Programme for Palestine (https://www.wfp.org/emergencies/palestine-emergency) and the Mohsen A. and Carol M. Younes Scholarship at the University of Michigan-Flint (UM-Flint Office of University Advancement, 303 E. Kearsley St., Flint, MI 48502). To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Mohsen, please visit our floral store.