Former Time Inc. President and RAND Trustee J. Richard Munro Dies at 93

RAND notes with regret the death of J. Richard Munro, the former CEO of Time Inc. who helped build HBO into a cable TV powerhouse before building one of the world's largest media and communications companies, Time Warner, in 1990.

Munro served on the board of trustees of nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND from 1984 to 1994.

“Dick Munro came to the RAND board with a lifetime of experience as a leader in the business of media who deeply respected the value of getting the facts right,” said Jason Matheny, president and CEO of the Santa Monica, California–based RAND. “He also had a newsman's ability to recognize a good idea and helped greenlight research that would make a difference.”

Born January 26, 1931, in Syracuse, New York, Munro joined the Marines in 1951 and served in the Korean War. He was wounded three times during the conflict, including when a grenade went off at his feet and led to him being hospitalized for a year, he later recalled.

After earning his bachelor's degree in English and psychology from Colgate University in 1957, he joined Time Inc. and spent more than three decades with the company. He started out in the circulation department at Time and spent from 1960 to about 1970 at Sports Illustrated, rising to publisher of the magazine. In a 1990 oral history, he called it “a really wondrous, joyful decade.”

In the early 1970s, Munro became involved in what he once called “the fledgling video” side of Time as vice-president of the video division.

He served as chief executive officer of Time from 1980 to 1989 and was the co-executive officer of Time-Warner from 1989 to 1990.