Robert Munro; daring pilot, founder of Kenmore Air Harbor

Robert B. Munro built Kenmore Air Harbor into the region's premier seaplane service with a reputation for honesty, generosity and a sense of adventure.

Founded by Mr. Munro with two friends in 1946, Kenmore Air Harbor now boasts about 125 employees. But even as his operation grew, Mr. Munro kept it closely knit, running the business with family members and employees he treated as though they were kin.

Mr. Munro died last Friday (Oct. 27) after an extended illness. He was 83.

Kenmore Air Harbor, on a five-acre plot along the shores of Lake Washington in Kenmore, combines a 22-plane airline with seaplane sales and service.

Mr. Munro lived in a house on the property with his wife, Ruth, strolling to work every day for 54 years past rows of parked seaplanes.

The business has remained very much a family affair, with son Gregg Munro now serving as president, grandson Todd Banks as general manager and daughter Leslie Banks as office manager.

Mr. Munro was generous toward his employees, instituting a profit-sharing program and making loans to help them through hard times. And his workers repaid that with loyalty, many staying at the company for 10, 20 or 30 years.

"It's not a cliche. He really looked at employees as personal family members," said Tim Brooks, a pilot and vice president for flight operations at Kenmore Air. He has been there 25 years.

"He was one of the last of that generation where a handshake made a deal," his daughter said.

A sense of adventure also filled Mr. Munro, a skilled pilot and mechanic who pioneered the dangerous art of landing on glaciers.

In the late 1960s, Mr. Munro flew food, heating oil and other supplies to a team of University of Washington scientists on the Blue Glacier of Mount Olympus.

Another time, Mr. Munro rescued a scientist with a ruptured appendix from a glacier, performing a tricky solo landing with his favorite de Havilland Beaver seaplane in a tiny, mostly icebound lake after the Coast Guard refused, saying it was too windy.

"You could always count on Kenmore," said C. Marin Faure, a video and film producer for Boeing, who is writing a book about Mr. Munro and his company.

While he rarely took extended vacations, Mr. Munro embraced his role as grandfather, taking his grandchildren on annual trips to Alaska, where he would teach them to identify trees and clams, tie knots and generally appreciate the outdoors.

"We had to pass a test before he'd let us come home," recalled grandson Todd Banks.

Mr. Munro was born in Olympia in 1917. He graduated from Roosevelt High School in 1935 and worked for Pan Am Airlines before founding Kenmore Air Harbor. He married Ruth Holden in 1942.

Mr. Munro's career was marked with several awards for his skill as a pilot and mechanic. In 1997, he was inducted into the prestigious Pathfinder Hall of Fame at the Museum of Flight. Last year, he was inducted into the Washington State Aeronautics Hall of Fame.

In addition to his wife, son and daughter, Mr. Munro is survived by his sister Joanne Horton of Belvedere, Calif.; daughter Marjorie Greene of Vashon Island, five grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

Family and employees will celebrate Mr. Munro's life on Thursday, Nov. 16, at 4 p.m. at Kenmore Air Harbor, 6321 N.E. 175th St., Kenmore. The family suggests memorials be made to the Northshore Scholarship Foundation, P.O. Box 173, Bothell, WA, 98041.