On 6 August 2010, Michael Hector Munro, aged 82, of Chartwell Lodge, Bishop’s Down Road, Tunbridge Wells TN4 8XL.
Mr Munro registered in 1954 and retired from the Register in 2005 and was a former chairman of both the Bath and Tunbridge Wells branches of the Society.
Tributes
BRUCE RHODES writes: And so Mike Munro has died and that is such sad news for his family, his friends and the profession.
Many of today’s pharmacists will not have known him because at 83 he outlived so many but it should be recorded that we owe him a debt of gratitude.
Mike, as he always was to me when being referred to but Michael face to face, was born in 1927 and after taking the first year of a medical qualification served in the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders before returning to his studies in Bristol but this time in his wisdom to pharmacy.
This was the best thing he could have done because it was there that he met his future wife Pam. They both served the community and the profession well and were the most caring of parents to sons Robin and Nick.
Mike worked as a medical representative for British Drug Houses before joining the Crown Chemical Company, which manufactured animal health products, where he became sales director. This was when our relationship developed as I was responsible for the Pharmaceutical Society’s agricultural and veterinary activities. The fact that as an inspector I had initiated a prosecution against one of his representatives was sometimes a topic of conversation but never a bone of contention.
After retiring from Crown, Mike became chief executive of the British Distributors of Animal Medicines and subsequently founding chief executive of the Animal Health Distributors Association.
He retired in 1987 and with Pam founded Headway, a head injuries association, in Tunbridge Wells. This was their response to a severe accident to Nick, their younger son, and was typical of them illustrating their view that positive actions were more likely to produce beneficial effects rather than simply bemoaning their fate. They were so successful that Pam was rightly awarded an MBE for her efforts.
Mike had a lot to be proud of in his life: his wife, his boys, his career — and particularly his taking of a 19½lb salmon. At the drop of a hat he would produce a rather crumpled photograph of his catch and repeatedly bore the pants off anyone who would listen, as I had to on many an occasion. I even had to visit the pool in Wales where the deed took place and have the scene re-enacted time and again.
Mike and I had many fishing holidays together. It is said that all fishermen boast (although I personally would deny that) and Mike was not averse to making the most of what he had. He boasted that Karl Marx was a forebear, he boasted that he introduced me to Dennis Thatcher at one of his firm’s parties, and he boasted that he caught the largest fish.
Mike will be sadly missed, but happily remembered, by Pam and the boys, by his church which was important to him, by Headway, by his local branch and by the community. Those who knew him will remember him with pleasure and affection because in his time he made his mark.
So we’ll go no more a roving Michael, good friend and fellow professional — “may you rest in peace and rise in glory”.
