Michael F. Mellin

1950 - 2018
Michael Mellin left us suddenly on January 20, 2018 while vacationing in Maui, Hawaii at the age of 67.

Michael was born on July 22, 1950 in Far Rockaway, New York and grew up in Tenafly, New Jersey.

He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1972 as a senior fellow, alumni fellow, and member of Casque and Gauntlet. He also earned a degree in electrical engineering from the New Jersey Institute of Technology. In addition, he held a Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of North Carolina. Though his journey through life took him far from academia, Michael remained a lifelong scholar and avid reader, not only in English but in French, Italian, and Latin. He was particularly fond of Catullus and Ovid.

During his career, Michael worked in the fields of book and software publishing. He was the publisher of Random House Reference. Under his direction, The Random House Dictionary of the English Language (Random House unabridged) became the first major English-language dictionary in digital form. He also worked at Simon and Schuster, where he published trade technical books. Involved in early tax software, he was also CEO of Hands On Technology in Burlingame, CA. He lived in Silicon Valley for more than 20 years.

Michael is survived by his partner, Robert A. Nelson, of Castro Valley, California; his daughter, Julie Mellin, of Brooklyn, New York; his former wife, Jane Mellin, of Madrid, New Mexico; his sister, Kathleen Elsden, of Reedville, Virginia; and his brother, Kenneth Mellin, of Colorado Springs, Colorado. He is preceded in death by his mother, Eileen McGrath Mellin, his father, William F. Mellin, and his brother, William F. Mellin, Jr. He is sorely missed by a wealth of friends and associates.