Tetsuo Nozoe was married to Kyoko Horiuchi and had four children – one son and three daughters. Tetsuo died of cancer on 4 April 1996.
He was collecting autographs and tributes from famous chemists all over the world, including at least 32 Nobel laureates, and had collected more than 4,000 signatures and comments in his note books. Tetsuo's autograph books, of 1,179 pages, are kept in the archives in Tohoku University.
His son Shigeo, daughter Yoko, grandson and granddaughters also studied chemistry. Shigeo Nozoe was also a professor of chemistry at Tokohu University.