Born in Harrogate, Yorkshire, Michael Moss would have been eligible to play for Yorkshire County Cricket Club, which would probably have amused him. The son of a clergyman and a doctor, Michael was educated at King Edward's School, Bath before studying modern history at Worcester College, University of Oxford. After graduating in 1969 he completed an archival training course at the Bodleian Library, which afforded him the opportunity to become one of the new regional registrars in Scotland.As Registrar of the Western Survey of the National Register of Archives (Scotland), based in Glasgow, he was responsible for locating and listing records of historical interest throughout what was to become the Strathclyde Region, significant for its shipbuilding and engineering industries. In doing so, he met and interviewed many of these industries' leaders giving him an insight into how the businesses were run and the reasons for their decline. He famously rescued the Upper Clyde Shipbuilders' records from a flooded basement, one among many rescues. Four years later, in 1974, he was appointed as Archivist of the University of Glasgow responsible for the archives and Business Records Centre, a position he held until 2001. During this period, he had two secondments. The first, as deputy to the Vice-Principal for Information Services at the University, saw him work with colleagues on a JISC Technology Applications Programme funded project. Its aim was to provide 'protocols and tools for the effective management of information in the digital order, with particular attention to information held in a document-based form' 1 ; the team developed an early demonstrator system. The second secondment was in the private sector. Appointed at senior executive level to Standard Life, at the time the largest mutual life assurance office in Europe, Michael wrote a history of the company for its 175th anniversary in 2000.In 2001, he became Professor of Archival Studies in the Humanities Advanced Technologies and Information Institute (HATII) at Glasgow University. His wealth of knowledge and experience informed his theoretical perspective on archives and the development of an MSc in information management and preservation and a doctoral programme, which attracted students from the UK and overseas.