Jeffrey Van Fleet died December 9; he was 71.
Fodor’s would like to acknowledge a passing. Jeffrey Van Fleet has been a Fodor’s writer for over two decades, contributing to numerous guidebooks covering Latin America, including those for Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, and several other destinations. In fact, this year, Jeff finished work on the latest edition of our Belize guide, which will be published early next year, and was working on Costa Rica at the time of his sudden death last week.
Those of us who have worked with him directly found Jeff to be a consummate professional, always good-humored, and an inspirational writer. We editors often gave him the highest praise we could offer a writer: he was an “easy edit,” and we always looked forward to working on a project with him, not just because of his reliability, but also because we genuinely liked and enjoyed working with him on many different levels. He consistently brought more to every guidebook he worked on than we could possibly compensate him for. As an irreplaceable part of the Fodor’s family, he will be missed. We know he will be remembered by his family and friends in Wisconsin, but he will also be remembered by us.