American cartographer and academic
Karen Lea Wynn Fonstad (April 18, 1945 – March 11, 2005) was an American cartographer and academic who designed several atlases of fictional worlds, including her 1981 "The Atlas of Middle-earth" about J. R. R. Tolkien's creations. 
Early life and education.
Born Karen Lea Wynn in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to parents James and Estis Wynn. She was raised in Norman, Oklahoma where he father ran a sheet metal shop. She graduated from Norman High School, and then earned a B.S. degree in Physical Therapy in 1967, from the University of Oklahoma. In 1968, she was among the first women accepted into the school's geography graduate program, where she wrote a style manual of cartographic symbology as her master’s thesis. While at the University she met Todd A. Fonstad, also in the geography department. They married in 1970, and in 1971 moved to Wisconsin where Todd taught at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. They had two children.
A friend lent Fonstad a copy of Tolkien's work and she became enchanted. "I doubt if any other book or books will ever grasp my interest as much as these," she wrote in her journal in 1975. "Each time I finish a reading I immediately feel as if I hadn’t read them for weeks and I am lonely for them — lonely for the characters within the books, the tremendously vivid descriptions, the whole essence." "Her son said she had read "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" some 30 times before pitching the atlas."
Career.
Before her "retirement" to raising children and writing companion atlases, Fonstad was Director of Cartographic Services at the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh. Her formal acknowledgments for "The Atlas of Pern" (1984) include "my husband, Todd, associate professor geography" and the UW Oshkosh Department of Geography. She served on the Oshkosh City Planning Commission for twenty-four years and was a member of the Oshkosh Common Council. Other interests and activities included the Grand Opera House Board of Directors, Hotel/Convention Center and Mass Transportation Center Development Committees, Oshkosh Commercial Development Corporation, Business Improvement Council Board of Directors, Downtown Oshkosh Committee, the Oshkosh Symphony League, the Camp Fire and Cub Scout programs, and the UW-Oshkosh Faculty Dames, where she held the offices of president and secretary.
Death.
Karen Wynn Fonstad died, aged 59, from complications of breast cancer.
Works.
Fonstad's speciality was the creation of fictional atlases:
References.
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