Richard G. Munro of Dayspring / Bridgewater, Lunenburg Co., is one of the finest runners Nova Scotia has ever produced. Attaining championships at every level, he was undefeated from high school through university.

In Munro’s first three years at Dalhousie University, only the winning AUAA cross-country team went to nationals. While Munro won the AUAA races, he didn’t get to go to nationals because the Dal team finished second. Finally, in his senior year, the team won and Munro was able to win a CIAU individual title.

As a teenager, Munro was an all-around athlete. He played minor baseball from ages 8 to 18, throwing a no-hitter at 17. It was while a sea cadet at age 14 that running became an interest. All cadets had to run a mile and half race at Cornwallis cadet camp. Coming off a sprained ankle from 10 days prior, Munro won the race. That propelled him into cross-country running in Grade 10 and three straight provincial high school championships. Dal coach Al Yarr recognized a future Tiger and convinced Munro to work harder on his studies.

Munro won every race he ran as a Tiger, but one. At a meet at Bates College in Maine, Munro was deathly ill from air sickness after flying on a small plane. Despite his condition, he ran anyway and still claimed a third-place finish.

In the summer of 1971, Munro trained in Toronto with Canadian running icons Bruce Kidd and Bill Crothers, working jobs all day and running six or seven miles in the early morning and another eight miles at night. In November, he won the Canadian Cross-Country championship in Halifax by 42 seconds over the second place finisher, 1968 Canadian Olympian Dave Ellis. In 1972, Munro won the AUAA and CIAU Cross Country Championship, the 5,000 metres in the AUAA Track and Field championships, and earned the Climo Trophy as Dal’s outstanding male athlete. He was known for his physical talent, exceptional ability to compete, determination and positive attitude.

With a dream to run an Olympic marathon in 1976, Munro went to Australia in 1973 where he could train year-round. However, a recurring foot injury was the beginning of the end of his running career. He ran a 4:02.4 mile in an invitational event and won other distance races, but when he returned to Canada in 1976, the prognosis for healing was slim.

An education graduate, Munro moved into sport administration in 1976 with the Nova Scotia and Canadian Track and Field Associations. In 1981, as executive director of the association’s Run Canada division, he was asked to help complete Terry Fox’s run to the west coast. Instead, he suggested that the Terry Fox Run be started and he became the managing director for that inaugural year. Until retiring in 2012, Munro was CEO of several national associations and charities. In 1999, he received the Fundraising Executive Award at Ottawa’s Philanthropy Awards. He still golfs and curls regularly.