Before there was Google there was Federico Acerri. As an information specialist in the Michigan school system, where he worked for decades, he took on every imaginable query from staff members and students, culling dictionaries, microfilm and databases to find an answer.

He was also a prolific artist, drawing under the name Mad Monk. Mr. Acerri died on April 12 at the Ascension St. John Hospital in Detroit of complications of the new coronavirus, his sister, Mary Ann Tschiggfrey, said. He was 81.