Michael Madden was born May 16, 1947, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. When he was 2 years old, his family moved to Columbia, Missouri and he attended the nursery school program at Stephens College (a junior college for women) where his father, Charles Madden, taught Creative Writing and later became Chairman of the Communications Department.

Mike attended Lee School in Columbia, Missouri for kindergarten through the third grade, then grades 4 through 12 at the University of Missouri Laboratory School on the MU campus, graduating from “U-High” in 1965 with a small class of about 35 students. After graduating from high school, he attended the University of Missouri in the summer and fall semesters of 1965.

In January of 1966, Mike transferred to the University of Missouri at Kansas City and became the first person in Missouri to major in Classical Guitar Performance. His guitar teachers there included Walter Fritschy, Joe Cozad and Dick Johnson. He returned to Kansas City in the summers to study in master classes with Oscar Ghiglia, the Italian virtuoso and disciple of Andres Segovia.

After graduating from the UMKC Conservatory of Music in 1969, Mike was accepted as a student of Alirio Diaz, the Venezuelan virtuoso, who that summer, was teaching at the Banff School of Fine Arts in the Canadian Rockies. Mike’s mother, Trudy, bought herself a VW bug that year, but lent it to Mike so that he could drive to Banff.

By the time Mike had graduated from the conservatory, his family had moved to Webster Groves, MO, where his father had a job as Dean of the Undergraduate Program at Webster University and his mother taught English at the Meramec campus of the St. Louis Community College System.

Mike worked at three places in the St. Louis area before returning to graduate school. He sold men’s wear at Golde’s Department store in Warson Woods, a suburb of St. Louis, and then became a “Library Assistant” at the University City Public Library in another suburb of St. Louis. In addition to these jobs, he taught guitar in the Music Department at Webster University.

Mike was encouraged by the director of the University City Library to apply for a scholarship to the graduate program in Library Science at the University of Missouri at Columbia. On the second attempt, he got the scholarship, and in 1972, he graduated with a master’s degree in library science.

That same year, he married one of his classmates in the library program, Mary Kathleen Gronniger. Everyone knew her as Kay. They married shortly after finishing graduate school and both worked for a time at the Springfield–Greene County Library. Their marriage lasted 7 years and they divorced on friendly terms.

By the end of the library job, Mike was already teaching guitar at Missouri State University in Springfield. He taught a variety of courses in addition to the studio lessons in guitar, and the position became full time. He stated that it was the best job he ever had. He felt it was what he was meant to do and he had the pleasure of doing it for 15 years.

Mike did not only teach at the University. He taught private classical guitar lessons at home as well. One day, another instructor asked Mike if he would take over teaching one of his young students, whom he described as, “not a good student”, and one that didn’t practice enough to accomplish much. A beautiful young lady and a high school student then, Cecilia Marie Kirwin, (everyone called her Tia), turned out to be very talented and determined. With Mike’s mentorship, she became a music major at the university, and to her former teacher’s astonishment, she soon played a solo concert in the music department’s recital hall. She became Mike’s duet partner, and they lived together for the next ten years, performing frequently in Springfield and the surrounding areas.

In addition to playing classical guitar, Tia played rock and roll electric guitar with an all-girl band which Mike had named Betty Rocker. That band had a keyboard player and vocalist named Pamela Burris (Combs). After Tia had left Missouri to tour Florida with another rock band, and Pamela divorced, Mike and Pam began to spend time together. Their relationship became a long distance one when Mike took a library job at West Virginia Northern Community College, but they continued to meet each other in places like Toronto, Mexico and Puerto Rico. They traveled together often, so besides a love of music, they also had that interest in common. They married October 10, 1992, when, worn out by the long-distance romance, Mike moved back to Springfield and took a job as an assistant librarian at a new community college, then called “Heart of the Ozarks” Technical Community College. Mike steadily moved up the ladder to finally retire as OTC’s Dean of Learning Resources after 21 years.

On May 3, 2000, when Mike was 53 and Pam was 35 years old, their son, Riley Mikale Madden, was born. Riley is interested in art and music. A graduate of Full Sail University, he shares his parents’ love of music, playing both piano and electric guitar. Mike enjoyed listening to him play.

Other things Mike enjoyed included playing classical guitar, riding motorcycles, star gazing, making and flying kites, riding a bicycle, watching old episodes of Star Trek, watching old movies, dark chocolate, travelling, driving, cooking, bird watching, reading, listening to classical music, taking pictures, writing, singing, and talking to strangers.

“Most of my pride is related to my son and what a great young man he has become, but I am proud of the fact that I have recovered from a considerable number of setbacks that have come my way during my life. My advice is the title of a book. It is called Never Sweat the Small Stuff, and It’s All Small Stuff.”

Mike is preceded in death by his parents, Charles Frank and Trudy Madden and his sister, Melody Pierson, of Springfield, MO. He is survived by his wife, Pamela Gale Combs, and son, Riley Mikale Madden, Nixa MO, his brothers, Mirth Madden and wife Judy, Manley, Iowa, Mark Madden, St. Louis, MO, Matthew Madden and wife Julie, Centennial, CO, nieces Briana and Kailey Madden, Centennial CO, Nicole Madden, St. Louis, MO, and Elicia Green, Englewood, CO. He will be greatly missed by his family and his many friends, classmates, colleagues, and students.

No service is currently planned. In lieu of flowers, the family would appreciate donations to the Alzheimer’s Association.