- Peter Bruce Munroe was born July 9, 1918 in Detroit, Michigan to Jesse Munroe and Lulu (Bruce) Munroe. He left this world peacefully January 5, 2019 after watching MSU defeat OSU in basketball. His brothers Robert J. Munroe, Richard D. Munroe, and sister, Frances Munroe, predeceased him. He is survived by many nieces and nephews. He was a lifelong resident of the Lansing area. Peter was graduated from Lansing Eastern High School in 1936. Early in his first semester of high school, he learned that he would be graded on attitude instead of academic achievement. Thereafter, he engaged in everything but studies. The fact that he was elected president of the student council in his senior year on a platform of "ignore the faculty" did not endear him to the faculty. His mediocre grades in high school ran counter to the belief that mediocre grades forecast failure in college. Peter was graduated from Michigan State College in 1940 with high honor. According to a younger brother who followed him in high school, the high school faculty was amazed when his name appeared regularly as the recipient of a virtual all A record in college. He was graduated close to the top of his class. He was a member of Delta Sigma Phi. In his junior year of college, he encountered a prophesy of failure from a faculty member when he dropped out of the advanced military ROTC course. The Commandant told him that he "would never amount to a damn." Fortunately, he was not discouraged by this prediction. His junior year was an eventful one for another reason. He met Mary Jean Mabie, the girl who was to become his wife. In August of 1942, Peter was commissioned in the Navy with the rank of ensign. He was released from active duty in February 1946 with the rank of lieutenant. In the same year he entered Harvard Law School. He was graduated in 1949. While Peter was a student at Harvard Law School, Mary Jean worked at the Polaroid Corporation in Cambridge. This was at the time when Polaroid developed the famous "Land" camera. After Peter's graduation from Harvard Law School, Peter and Mary Jean moved back to the Lansing area. Mary Jean went to work for the East Lansing School Board where she worked for 43 years until her retirement. Peter had a distinguished legal career. It started after he was graduated from Harvard Law School. Many words could be used to describe his reputation in the legal community – honest, hard-working, and a man of integrity, are but a few.
Peter started his legal career with the Michigan State Accident Fund where he eventually became General Counsel. In 1971, he started his own firm in East Lansing with Larry Nobach. Larry had worked with him at the Accident Fund. The firm of Munroe and Nobach, P.C., represented General Motors Corporation, Michigan State University, Auto Owners, Hastings Mutual, Liberty Mutual, and many more. Over the years Larry proved to be a trusted partner and one of Peter's best friends.
Prior to his retirement, Peter purchased a condominium in Naples, Florida where he and Mary Jean enjoyed many winters in the sunshine. Larry and his wife, Sandie, also purchased a condominium in the same development. Larry and Sandie provided friendship and support over the years, especially after the loss of Mary Jean. Larry retired in 1999. He predeceased Peter. Other partners included John McIntosh, Richard Weiser, J. William Housefield, and Cameron McComb. Other than trusted partners, Peter felt the next best asset of a law firm was a good secretary. He found one at the Accident Fund in Cathy Lenhard. She quickly became the office manager. The law firm concentrated on defense of workers' compensation claims. Until the time of his death, Peter remained an active member of the American Bar Association, the State Bar of Michigan, and the Workers' Compensation Section of the State Bar. Peter served as the Chairperson of the Workers' Compensation Section and was honored by the Section by his induction into the Workers' Compensation Hall of Fame in April of 1996.
Funeral service at Gorsline Runciman East Chapel, 1730 E. Grand River, East Lansing, Friday at 11 a.m. with visitation beginning at 10 a.m. Rev. Steve Ezop will officiate. Burial will follow at Mount Hope Cemetery in Lansing.
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- Mary Jean Mabie Munroe was born July 15, 1918 in Lansing, Michigan to Roy Mabie and Lucy Longyear Mabie. She died January 5, 2016. She is survived by her husband Peter.
At the time of her birth, her father was a soldier in the US Army. Her mother and father were divorced while Mary Jean was an infant. According to bits of information acquired by Mary Jean as she was growing up, her father had been driven away by her maternal grandmother, the dominant matriarch of the family. Thereafter, Mary Jean and her sister (Barbara Lou), two years younger, were raised by her mother, and her mother's sister, Gertrude Longyear. Gertrude Longyear became the economic mainstay of the family. These two great and gracious ladies sacrificed all of their personal desires and dreams to raise and educate two beautiful girls. Both of the girls ultimately were graduated from Lansing Central High School and Michigan State University (then Michigan State College).
While in college, the two girls lacked for nothing. Mary Jean majored in languages, and her younger sister studied music. Both became members of Kappa Alpha Theta Sorority. In Mary Jean's junior year, she met the man who was to become her husband. The romance began on one of Mary Jean's infrequent trips to the college library and culminated in marriage in October, 1940. The young couple began their married life living and working in Detroit. Mary Jean taught herself typing and shorthand and became expert in both. When her husband was commissioned in the US Navy in 1942, she returned briefly to Lansing and then obtained employment in New York where she worked in the personnel department of a major engineering firm. When the war ended, she went to Cambridge, Massachusetts with her husband. While her husband was a student at Harvard Law School, she worked in the public relations department of the Polaroid Corporation. While Mary Jean worked for Polaroid, the company developed the famous Land camera, and she modeled frequently for photographs during the camera's development.
After her husband's graduation from law school, Mary Jean returned with him to Lansing where he began his la career. She became a secretary to the superintendent of the East Lansing Public Schools. For the next 43 years she worked for several superintendents. One of her duties was to take and transcribe minutes of the meetings of the Board of Education....
When her husband organized and opened his own law firm, Mary Jean became the paymaster for the firm. She prepared the payrolls and made all of the necessary federal and state filings....
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1918 - 2019 (100 years)
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