Robert Monroe, 74, Former Head Of UW Library Collection

Robert D. Monroe's life was quiet but full of passionate interests.

Friends recall Mr. Monroe, for many years the head of the special collection division of the University of Washington Library, as a man with a wide range of interests.

Rare books, theater, travel and historical photography of the Pacific Northwest were just a few of Mr. Monroe's passions.

"He was a special person just full of interest about everything . . . and he studied everything that interested him very deeply," said Robert Mattila, a longtime friend.

Another friend, the Rev. Dennis Andersen, called Mr. Monroe a tweedy academic person but someone who was very passionate about his interests.

"The way he held a book, with a great deal of reverence, told you how much those things meant to him," Andersen said.

Mr. Monroe, 74, a Wallingford resident most of his life, died Sept. 25. He had been ill for some time after suffering a series of strokes several years ago.

Mr. Monroe joined the library system at the university in 1948 shortly after he received a bachelor of arts degree in librarianship from the school. He already had a degree in education from Southern Oregon College.

In 1963, Mr. Monroe was put in charge of the library's special collection division, which houses rare materials and items dealing with the history of the Pacific Northwest.

Sandra Kroupa, who worked with Mr. Monroe at the library, said under his stewardship the special collection division, especially its section on Northwest historical photography, grew in volume and respect.

"He made the administration aware that it was a very important area . . . and we now have a huge historical photo section that includes 500,000 images," Kroupa said.

In 1980, when Mr. Monroe retired, then-library director Merle Boylan wrote of him, "The fine special collection area that you have built with limited resources represents a solid foundation on which the library can continue to build."

But Mr. Monroe did more than collect Northwest photography. He did documentaries, gave slide presentations and wrote in scholarly journals, "encouraging the use of photography in a wider range of sources," Kroupa said.

Kroupa also knew Mr. Monroe as "a very charming, witty, verbal kind of person," who wrote poetry and was interested in theater and mime.

In 1980, Mr. Monroe and several others started the Book Club of Washington, a small group of collectors who prize the "book arts," of fine printing, decorated bindings and book illustrations.

Another passion of Mr. Monroe's was travel. Almost yearly he went to France or England, often to study the architecture of cathedrals.

A native of Klamath Falls, Ore., Mr. Monroe served in the U.S. Army Air Corps from 1942 until the end of World War II. He spent much of that time in the Yunan Province in China, where he interpreted aerial photographs looking for enemy installations and camouflage.

Mr. Monroe had no survivors. No services were held at Mr. Monroe's request, but a memorial gathering will be held Oct. 31, Mr. Monroe's birthday, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Center for Urban Horticulture on the UW campus.