George Barber Munroe (January 5, 1922 – August 19, 2014) was an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player,

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

veteran,

Rhodes scholar The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...

, lawyer, and former

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of Phelps Dodge Corporation.

College

Munroe matriculated at

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...

in the fall of 1939. He played on the Big Green basketball team from 1940–41 to 1942–43, where as junior he was honored as a consensus Second Team All-American. A ,

guard Guard or guards may refer to: Professional occupations * Bodyguard, who protects an individual from personal assault * Crossing guard, who stops traffic so pedestrians can cross the street * Lifeguard, who rescues people from drowning * Prison ...

, Munroe guided Dartmouth to the NCAA national title game—the school's first championship appearance—but lost to

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

, 53–38. They finished the season with a 22–6 overall record, largely led by Munroe, who was the 1941–42 Eastern Intercollegiate Basketball League (Ivy League) scoring champion. In 12 conference games he scored 175 points, good for an average of 14.6

points per game Points per game, often abbreviated PPG, is the average number of points scored by a player per game played in a sport, over the course of a series of games, a whole season, or a career. It is calculated by dividing the total number of points by nu ...

. As a

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

in 1942–43, Dartmouth once again reached the NCAA Tournament, but this time lost in the opening round to DePaul, 46–36. They would defeat

NYU New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-United States Secretary of the Treasu ...

51–49 in the East Region consolation game, however, and finish their season with a 20–3 overall record. In the spring of 1943, Munroe graduated from Dartmouth College. After graduation, Munroe served in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

from 1943 to 1946.

Professional basketball career

After he was discharged from the Navy, Munroe played for two seasons in the

Basketball Association of America The Basketball Association of America (BAA) was a professional basketball league in North America, founded in 1946. Following its third season, 1948–49, the BAA absorbed most of National Basketball League (NBL) and rebranded as the National Ba ...

(BAA). He spent the 1946–47 season playing for the

St. Louis Bombers The St. Louis Bombers were a National Basketball Association team based in St. Louis from 1946 to 1950. Franchise history The St. Louis Bombers were originally part of the Basketball Association of America (BAA) in 1946. The BAA merged wit ...

and the 1947–48 season with the

Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. Founded in 1946 as one of t ...

. In his two professional seasons, Munroe averaged 6.1 points in 80 career games.

Post-playing career

Lawyer and Rhodes Scholar

When his basketball career ended, he enrolled at

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

where he earned his LL.B. in 1949. Shortly thereafter, Munroe was admitted to the

New York State Bar Association The New York State Bar Association (NYSBA) is a voluntary bar association for the state of New York. The mission of the association is to cultivate the science of jurisprudence; promote reform in the law; facilitate the administration of justice ...

and became associated with the firm of

Cravath, Swaine & Moore Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP (known as Cravath) is an American white-shoe law firm with its headquarters in New York City, and an additional office in London. The firm is known for its complex and high profile litigation and mergers & acquisitions ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He was only with the firm for a short while before enrolling at

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...

, one of the biggest constituent colleges of the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

in England. In 1951, Munroe received his B.A. degree and graduated from Christ Church as a

. Upon returning to the United States he practiced law for several years, but then returned to Oxford and earned an M.A. from Christ Church in 1956. For the next two years, Munroe practiced law in New York, and then in 1958 he joined Phelps Dodge Corporation, an American mining company.

Phelps Dodge Company

In 1962, after spending four years with the company, he was appointed vice president, a position which he held for another four years. Then, in 1966, Munroe took control of the company's daily operations when he was promoted to be its president. After making his way to the very top of the company's ladder by becoming the

in 1969, he served as the president and CEO concurrently until 1975, at which point Munroe stepped down as president to focus on his duties as the CEO. He finally retired from the mining company in 1987 but still resumed his seat as a Member of the Board for Phelps Dodge. He was on the Board from 1966 to 1994 and acted as its chairman from 1975 to 1987.

Dartmouth service

Although Munroe graduated from Dartmouth College in 1943, he retained a lifelong dedication to the institution. From 1959 to 1964 he was a Class Agent and was awarded the Hood Trophy in 1964 for his efforts. From 1964 to 1968, Munroe was a member of the Alumni Council and the Class Executive Committee, and in 1977, was elected to the Dartmouth College Board of Trustees. In 1988 he became the Chairman of the Board of Trustees but only served for three years amid a turbulent time in Dartmouth's alumni dissatisfaction. In August 2001, George Munroe donated his papers from his time as the Board Chairman to the Dartmouth College Library for historical archiving purposes.

Personal life

Munroe was born in

Joliet, Illinois Joliet ( ) is a city in Will County, Illinois, Will and Kendall County, Illinois, Kendall counties in the U.S. state of Illinois, southwest of Chicago. It is the county seat of Will County. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the cit ...

. He attended

Joliet Township High School Joliet Central High School is a public secondary school located in Joliet, Illinois. Central is part of Joliet Township High Schools, along with Joliet West and Joliet East (now defunct). Before the opening of Joliet East and West, the school wa ...

and graduated from there in 1939. Munroe's father was George Muller Munroe and his mother was Ruth Barber. He had two sons, George Taylor and Ralph W. Taylor, by his first wife Helen Taylor. They were married from June 22, 1945, until getting divorced in 1964. Munroe remarried on May 30, 1968, to Elinor Bunin. He died in August 2014 at the age of 92.

BAA career statistics

Regular season

Playoffs

References

External links

Munroe's full collection of papers
during his tenure as Dartmouth's Chairman of the Trustees {{DEFAULTSORT:Munroe, George 1922 births 2014 deaths All-American college men's basketball players Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford American men's basketball players American Rhodes Scholars Basketball players from Illinois Boston Celtics players Cravath, Swaine & Moore people Dartmouth Big Green men's basketball players Guards (basketball) Harvard Law School alumni Illinois lawyers New York (state) lawyers Phelps Dodge Sportspeople from Joliet, Illinois St. Louis Bombers (NBA) players United States Navy personnel of World War II