RMEF Media Grant Munro

Lasting Legacies

by Emily Messer

‘One of those people the world needs more of.’

One Montana morning, Grant Munro killed a cow elk while hunting with his close friend, Brian Anderson. As Brian ran back to grab Grant’s brother and friend to help quarter and pack out the elk, he spotted a buck bedded in the draw below. Grant still had a deer tag in his pocket, and now an opportunity presented.

“I ran back to Grant and told him, ‘There’s a big buck over here. Come shoot it!’” recalls Brian, RMEF regional development director for the western region. “And Grant just goes, ‘Brian, this elk is enough for me. Let’s let my brother or my friend shoot it.’” The group—Grant, his brother Greg, their friend Mike Rogers, and Brian—belly-crawled to the edge of a ridge overlooking the big mule deer buck. Greg’s shot found its mark.

“That moment showed me exactly who Grant is,” says Brian. “Selfless, generous and always thinking about others.”

In the damp forests and rugged coastlines of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, Grant Munro’s legacy runs deep. A lifelong outdoorsman, timber industry leader, philanthropist and devoted RMEF volunteer, Grant is the kind of person who cares deeply about conservation and helping the people around him. Brian describes him as a cornerstone of the community in Port Angeles, and as “one of the most helpful, positive people” he’s ever met.

Raised in the fishing and logging village of Sekiu, Washington, Grant’s childhood was spent in logging camps alongside his father and his three younger brothers. His father didn’t hunt, but all the kids in the area did. So when Grant turned 14 and was of legal age, he pressured his dad into taking him out. “We bought some really cheap World War II surplus rifles and learned by doing,” Grant recalls.

While he did not get a shot his first year, during his second, with his dad walking behind him in the timber, Grant killed a two-point buck. “We didn’t know exactly how to field dress a deer, but we learned. We didn’t know exactly how to get a deer out of the woods, but we learned. We probably made a lot of mistakes and did it the hard way, but we got it done.”

After graduating from high school in Clallam Bay, Grant earned a degree in forest management and an MBA from the University of Washington. He was 24 years old when he shot his first elk on the Olympic Peninsula and successfully killed an elk every year after for nine consecutive seasons. He began venturing into the Cascades on horseback and hunted with friends there for nearly three decades. Then, a good friend started taking him to Montana, and he has returned with his brothers every year since. “We don’t shoot much anymore,” he says. “We spend more time watching wildlife, deciding whether that buck is big enough or if we should let him go. It’s about the time spent together.”

Grant’s career in the timber industry spanned decades, from managing operations at major companies like Weyerhaeuser and Rayonier to launching his own successful log trading business, Munro LLC, in Port Angeles, which he still runs today at age 77.

As his professional life has thrived, Grant has long given back to the land and community that shaped him. He first became involved with RMEF in the early 1990s after attending a banquet

in Port Angeles, where he fell in love with the mission, specifically the public land protection aspect. He joined the committee soon after and has served in various roles over the years, including as treasurer and briefly as chair of the Olympic Peninsula Chapter.

Grant’s generosity goes beyond helping with banquets and bidding on high-ticket items. He contributes annually to RMEF through required minimum distributions from his 401K and has included RMEF in his will for more than 20 years. He also offers philanthropic and volunteer support to United Way, Children of the Nations, his church, his Rotary Club and more. “He has created all of his success, and he shares all of it with others,” Brian says. “He is one of those people the world needs more of.”

Today, Grant still hunts every year in Montana with his brothers, still hikes Olympic National Park as much as he can, and still skis in the winter. When asked what keeps him committed to RMEF, Grant is quick to answer. “The work RMEF does is so focused on hunters and land conservation and hunting opportunities that are getting more and more limited,” he says. “There are a lot of other conservation groups that don’t focus on access for hunters… RMEF does.”