Archives West Finding Aid

Merton Deming Munn was born on December 8, 1906 in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. After receiving his A. B. degree from Greenville College he pursued advanced degrees at the University of Michigan and the University of Cincinnati. He earned his D. Ed. from the latter’s Teachers College. Munn gained considerable experience in teaching posts in the South, Midwest and the West. After serving as associate professor at Livingston State Teachers College in Alabama, and then as dean and registrar at Greenville College in Illinois, he became dean at Whitworth College, Spokane, Washington, serving from 1941 to 1954.

After serving as academic dean at Carroll College in Wisconsin from 1954 through 1957, Dr. Munn became dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Silliman University in the Philippines. He organized that institution’s general education program and became it’s vice president for academic affairs. In 1965 the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia asked Munn to serve as director of research. At the conclusion of his study of more than sixty colleges and universities and twelve countries in Asia, he returned to Spokane to serve as chairman of the education department of Whitworth College and, concurrently, director of the college’s evening class program.

After retiring from Whitworth in 1974, Dr. Munn assumed the presidency of Sheldon Jackson College in Sitka, Alaska. He retired again in 1977, but continued to make himself available in various consulting capacities to Presbyterian churches, boards and committees. Dr. Munn’s first wife, Ida Smith Munn died in 1964. In 1967 Munn married Eufemia (“Femme”) Tobias, who survived his passing. Immediate family include sisters Idella Turvey and Alice Munn, brother Vernon Munn, and daughters Gwen Long and Evelyn Dee. This file demonstrates Munn’s fitness for the posts he held at Whitworth College.