Hamish M. Munro

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Cohasset High School

Hamish Munro Obituary

Hamish Morton Munro, of Cohasset, passed away Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2013, in the Season's Hospice, Phoenixville, Pa. He was born June 12, 1958, in St-Laurent, Quebec. He was the son of Margaret (Morton) Munro of Cohasset and the late Hugh Munro. Hamish grew up in Devon, Pa., and graduated from Cohasset High School in 1975. He received his B.S. from South Dakota School of Mines and Technology and a master's degree from UMass-Boston. Hamish was a senior software architect with Explorica, Inc., in Boston, where he leaves behind many friends and colleagues. He was an avid stamp and coin collector. He was a history buff who enjoyed traveling the world. Hamish was devoted to and spent much of his time on the restorations of his GTOs. In addition to his mother, Hamish is survived by two sisters, Alison Munro of Milton and Kirsty Munro of San Francisco, Calif.; two brothers, Neil, husband of Gail Munro, of Phoenixville, Pa., and Ewan, husband of Susan Munro, of Randolph; one niece and three nephews. A celebration of life service will be held in the spring in Cohasset. Memorial contributions may be made in his name at www.worldwildlife.org/species/giant-panda. Arrangements are being handled by the Campbell-Ennis-Klotzbach Funeral Home, Inc., Main Street at Fifth Avenue, Phoenixville, Pa. Condolences may be offered online by visiting www.PhoenixvilleFuneralHome.com.

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Published by The Patriot Ledger on Feb. 16, 2013.

Memories and Condolences
for Hamish Munro

2 Entries

Brien

February 19, 2013

I've only ever known one person named Hamish in my life, and that's appropriate as there was no one else like him.

We moved through a few different offices while at Cahners/Reed Business/eLogic and our second stop in cubeville was really where I got my first true dose of Hamish. I was still a fairly recent hire and getting used to my role and peers. The package known as Mike & Hamish were in the two cubes just north of me, across the aisle from each other. They seemingly entered the building together and stayed that way until they exited at days end. For the entire stretch of the day my proximity gave me unique access to the pair. Their first “discussion” of the day had clearly begun in the lobby and was in fast and furious debate before de-coating at their cubes. Politics, religion, health care, sports, coding methodologies, ancient cultures, there was no topic that was too intense or too trivial for a lively bicker. They could rail at a topic from opposite angles for days at a time or instantly put pause to an argument only to return to it minutes or even weeks later without skipping a beat. Intermingled with each topic was a constant stream of discussions around the coding they were executing simultaneously. I'd seen and heard some couples celebrating a 50 year plus marriage execute at this highly functional level of continuous barbarous debate but I'd not seen it in non-kin like this before. They shifted focus and gears on a dime with the most jarring shifts coming for two things: lunch and tennis. All arguments were instantly shelved to be replaced by an equally lively debate over where or what to eat and who was going to trounce who on the court. Like Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau they were an entertaining pair to watch and through it all you could always tell they were the best of friends.

In Massachusetts Hamish was in an environment that made sense for him. Cold weather, grumpy Bostonians, sarcasm as a first language, but no matter what Hamish purposefully held on to his stranger in a strange land approach as a Scottish Canadian confused by things like US healthcare and people's constant need not to suffer through life. In his relocation to California and Marina Del Rey he took a huge step into an even more alien planet, and he adapted not one inch. He explored the territory like a conquistador whose opinions of the natives left them without the advancements of his society but deeply in need of them. His compatriot in the relocation Wendy did not suffer his inadaptability, for her part she immediately learned to sleep late, eat strange foods and enjoy her surroundings. Luckily she had Hamish to consistently remind her that this place was not normal.

On landing on this alien planet Hamish immediately mapped out the local territory with perfect priorities. He actually invented the concept today that has evolved into Groupon and those twitter accounts identifying the deals of the day, he just didn't know it and he never commercialized. Lord knows the idea would've fared better than a typical Reed Business publication. I'd say “Hamish, what do you want to eat? I'm craving pizza.” He'd answer, “It's Tuesday, Pork Chops are two-for-one at Tony P's. Pizza is all you can eat tomorrow night so you can feel like pizza tomorrow.” He had a mental deal map of the city that just worked; I fell into the easy groove of eating where ever Hamish said the deal of the day was…

Hamish loved architecture and would spend hours researching where to see some great examples of local period styles or out of place examples of unique style. We'd spend some weekends on long walks to discover these treasures working only from his memory of the rough location as opposed to some GPS enforced path of least effort to arrive there. He also insisted on parking at least two and a half miles away from anything he intended to see. I believe it added to his sense of adventure and discovery and ensured that when he found that house demonstrating a classic Egyptian Revival style two blocks from Washington Square in Compton he had placed it in the proper context before viewing. If we'd driven right up and stopped in front then we might not have known how unique and interesting it was so out of place. We also probably would've gotten car jacked. Instead the kind folks on the porch across the street recommended that we head on back out the way we came… swiftly. The fact that they were convinced we had to be undercover police officers to actually be on foot in that neighborhood likely saved us from any deeper detainment. A real undercover police officer did offer to drive us out to our car as we progressed out the same two and a half miles we'd trekked in, but Hamish politely declined. That was indeed a very cool house and I am glad I saw it with Hamish. After that episode we were required to have our weekend plans approved by someone in the office to ensure that we wouldn't make the national newswires posthumously.

There were many elements and opinions of Hamish that were hard to reconcile – he made many situations challenging and his level of Canadian cynicism and conspiracy concerns were beyond what most could handle. He struggled with people progressing through the world with different views; it was too black and white for him to functionally digest such opposition. This meant that you were always guaranteed an unfiltered and unrepentant Hamish and it was in your court to accept him as is or walk away. Many times I wished he'd made life just a hair easier on himself and those around him, but I lack the personal perfection required to scorn or fault his approach and choices. I appreciated my time with him and I hope he's found the Hamish version of Nirvana with all you can eat double Pork Chops on Tuesday nights and an all you can eat Pizza buffet in a beautifully out of place Egyptian Revival-inspired building. No matter how perfect the environment I know he will still be wanting for his next great debate.

Cheers Hamish

February 17, 2013

Our thoughts are with our family at this sad time. Jenny Mary Jackie and Heather xxx

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