Before calling the Research department to find an obituary, research report or past article, you may wish to check Image Retrieval in PostGrads. What you seek may already be there!
If still no luck, try Lexis-Nexis Academic or NewsBank /America's Newspapers, which is available from computers on campus, or off-campus through EZProxy. Otherwise, these sources may be available at your local public library.
One popular free online source of obituaries and death notices is: