Jim Munro was a visionary who left his mark on his community, on Canada and on the world. The co-founder of Munro鈥檚 Books died Monday at the age of 84, two years after he gave his company to four longtime employees and retired from the bookselling trade. He was a remarkable man who successfully combined business acumen with his passion for books.
Munro and his former wife, literary giant and Nobel Prize winner Alice Munro, founded the first Munro鈥檚 Books in 1963 on Yates Street, relocating to Fort Street after several years. In 1984, Munro bought the 1909 Royal Bank of Canada building on Government Street, restoring it to its original grandeur. It was 鈥� and continues to be 鈥� the ideal home for a bookstore, helping the business to be rated as not only one of the top bookstores in Canada but in the world.
In March, National Geographic, in its book Destinations of a Lifetime, ranked Munro鈥檚 as the No. 3 bookshop in the world and a must-see destination for book lovers. The store has popped up on other international lists.
Munro鈥檚 support for the literary world, including being a champion for local writers, earned him a well-deserved appointment to the Order of Canada in 2014.
His love of the arts, his generosity of spirit and his enthusiasm in giving back to the community made Jim Munro a model for the rest of us in so many ways. He is gone but his influence will be part of Victoria for a long time to come.
