George Munroe with Elinor Bunin Munroe at the Film Society. Photo by Godlis

A prominent friend of the Film Society of Lincoln Center passed away August 19 at 92. George Barber Munroe was a professional basketball player, Navy veteran, Rhodes scholar, lawyer, and former CEO of Phelps Dodge Corporation. He married his second wife Elinor Bunin Munroe in 1968. She is a board member of the Film Society, whose three-year-old exhibition venue, the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, was named after her.
 
George Munroe was born in Joliet, Illinois, in 1922. After graduating from high school in his hometown, he attended Dartmouth College where he played basketball, twice helping to lead the school to the NCAA tournament. After graduation in 1943, Munroe served in the U.S. Navy during WWII, but returned to basketball after being discharged in 1946. He played two seasons for the Basketball Association of America, playing the '46-'47 season for the St. Louis Bombers and the '47-'48 season for the Boston Celtics, averaging 6.1 points in 80 career games. After leaving professional basketball he enrolled in law school at Harvard, earning his degree in 1949 and soon after admitted to the New York State Bar Association. He joined the firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore in the city for a short time before returning to school, this time in England as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University. 
 
He received an additional degree from the institution in 1951, returned to practice law, and then returned to Oxford to earn an M.A. at Christ Church in 1956. After a short stint practicing law, he joined the Phelps Dodge Corporation in 1958. In 1962 he was appointed vice president and then was named president in 1966 and finally CEO in 1969. He served as president and CEO until 1975 when he stepped down as president to focus on his obligations as CEO. Munroe retired in 1987 but retained his seat as a member of the board of Phelps Dodge until 1994.
 
Mr. Munroe's loyalty to his wife and support of her interests were instrumental to the Film Society and its initiatives. Former Film Society executive director and current board member Joanne Koch recalled meeting both Mr. and Mrs. Munroe when the latter joined the board in the mid ’70s: “Ellie joined our Board in 1976 and George has always been a strong supporter of the Film Society but especially of Ellie and her accomplishments as a creator of motion picture title sequences. At George's request and expense we did an evening honoring Ellie's work way back when—I believe in the ’80s.  He was very much a part of her decision to contribute the naming gift for the film center and attended every meeting and worked carefully on the contract. For several decades George regularly attended Film Society events, including New Directors performances, and since the opening of the Film Center George and Ellie have been unquestionably our most enthusiastic and loyal board members.”
 
Munroe is survived by his wife Elinor Bunin Munroe as well as his two sons, George Taylor and Ralph W. Taylor from his first wife Helen Taylor. Funeral arrangements are pending.

[Source: Wikipedia]