Dr. Alvin M. (Mark) Fountain II was named Honorary Consul for the Republic of Poland in 2008 and renominated in 2013.  This nomination crowned some 30 years of work on behalf of Poland in Raleigh and in North Carolina, much of it through the Polish-American Club.  His work with the NCSU summer biochemistry program in Poznan (UAM and UP), has--since its first summer in 2004--brought more than 60 US students to Poznan.  This year, 2017, will see the largest group yet: 14 students.

While he is not Polish by family, he arrived in Poland for the first time already in 1965, with a German touring student group from the Fridtjof Nansen-Haus in Göttingen, Germany.  He was so taken by the openness of Polish society that he chose to study the history of Poland.  Having graduated from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, he went to Columbia University in New York in 1967.  There he studied with notable scholars such as Istvan Deak, Vojtech Mastny, Joseph Rothschild, Andrzej Kaminski, Aleksander Erlich, and Otokar Odlozilik, earning a Ph.D. in 1976, with a dissertation on Roman Dmowski.
Honorary Consuls are limited to promoting the countries they represent; they have no legal power to act for their governments.  As Honorary Consul, Dr. Fountain has concentrated on cultural matters, promoting Polish music through the Paderewski Piano Festival in Raleigh and through contributions to various Chopin Foundations.  In 2016 he and his wife Brenda added the Polish Museum in Chicago to their list of benefactions.

Brenda and he were honored earlier this year by the Polish-American Historical Association for their many contributions to Polish culture in the United States.