Alvin Marcus Fountain was born in Onslow County, North Carolina, in 1900. He entered North Carolina State College in 1919 after having heard the stories of his cousin Kit Bryan, who had graduated from the college in 1911. Fountain majored in electrical engineering and participated in a number of extracurricular activities: he was an Intersociety debater, a member of the Leazar Literary Society, a member of the Quill Club, and the 1923 class poet. When the student newspaper, the Technician, was started in 1919, Fountain became a regular writer for the newspaper. He wrote both serious stories and humorous pieces, which he wrote under a pen name, Zippy Mack. Fountain eventually became editor-in-chief of the Technician as well as commencement orator in 1923.

After graduation, Fountain became a statistician for the Carolina Power and Light Company. The following year, while putting his older brother Robert Roy (R.R.) through school at N.C. State, Fountain decided to return to N.C. State as well and received a fellowship to do graduate work. Fountain received a master's degree in sociology in 1925 but found himself without any job prospects. Therefore, he wrote to N.C. State's president explaining his situation and offering to teach freshman courses, whereupon the president offered him a job teaching freshman English. At the same time, during summers, Fountain took English courses at the University of North Carolina to acquire the credentials necessary to teach college-level English. During this same period, in 1925, Fountain composed the lyrics to N.C. State's new alma mater, still in use 80 years later.

From 1929 to 1930, Fountain took a year off from teaching to acquire a master's degree in American literature from Columbia University in New York. He returned to teaching duties for several years and then, from 1935 to 1938, again returned to school, this time to receive a doctorate in technical writing from Peabody College in Nashville, Tennessee. While researching for his dissertation, Fountain came across the American Society for Engineering Education, an organization with which Fountain would be associated for over 30 years.

Upon returning once more to N.C. State, Fountain began developing courses in technical writing and in public speaking for engineering students. In 1943, Fountain co-authored the third edition of The Engineer's Manual of English. Later, he co-authored The Manual of Technical Writing. Fountain retired from teaching in 1965, but remained active in the N.C. State community by researching and composing a book on the history of place names at the university.

Fountain was also involved in the community outside the university. He was an active member and church elder in the Hillyer Memorial Christian Church, which he joined in 1923. He also was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution. He was deeply committed to his family history, doing a great deal of genealogical research and organizing annual family reunions. Fountain married Maxine Taylor, a native of Halifax County, North Carolina, in 1937. They had two children, Marcia and Alvin II (known as Mark). Fountain died in 1989.