Commentary: ‘I’m still a Republican because I want to make sure somebody in those circles still has a conscience.’
The essays, analyses and opinions presented as Community Voices express the perspectives of their authors on topics of interest and importance to the community, and are not intended to reflect perspectives on behalf of the Salish Current.
Ralph Munro, who died on March 20, became Washington’s secretary of state in 1981. At that time I was pursuing graduate studies at Washington State University and didn’t pay much attention to him. Secretary of state in state politics was an obscure position to me.
In 2003, I was recognized for my contributions in higher education by the Washington Education Association and Ralph Munro was also recognized for his advocacy for public K–12 education. We met at the awards dinner.
I still hadn’t paid much attention to Ralph’s activities. But he was also a strong supporter of public higher education and an alumnus of Western Washington University. He often appeared on panels of the Robert Taft Seminar for Teachers, which were held at Western and organized by my political science colleagues Eugene Hogan and Donald Alper.
When federal funding for the Taft Institute dried up, professors Hogan and Alper and WWU lobbyist Judy McNickle organized a fundraiser for Ralph’s retirement with proceeds going to endow the Taft Seminar for Teachers. The institute was renamed the Ralph Munro Institute for Civic Education and housed in Western’s political science department. Ralph led a session at each summer seminar on “The necessity of civic education for a democratic citizenry.”
I had the honor of directing the Munro Institute from 2015–2021. Over those years I got to know Ralph a little. A centrist Republican who made a career of working both sides of the aisle, he knew he had planted his institute in the liberal bastion of the political science department at Western.
During my first year at the institute, we held a conference themed “The Power of Civic Engagement.” Our keynote speaker was Pramila Jayapal, the liberal firebrand from Seattle who was then mounting her first campaign for Congress. The conference was a success attendance-wise and Ralph was a valuable audience member in a couple of the panels. He was happy that the conference went well, but as we planned subsequent programs, he privately counseled me by saying, “Remember, Vernon! Not too liberal-biased. Make sure both sides get represented.” And indeed, over the years we did that.
The institute had a table at the state capitol when nonprofit organizations were being featured. During lunch break, I walked around the campus with Ralph. All kinds of people stopped to say hello and chat with him. A couple of people of color greeted him warmly; they were people who worked in civil rights and social services in Seattle and Tacoma.
Over the years, I came to learn more about Ralph’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. He had befriended Terry Sullivan, a disabled child, while Ralph was an aide to Washington governor Dan Evans. In 1968 Evans visited the school for the disabled that Terry attended to dedicate a building. Ralph took the opportunity to introduce the governor to Terry. Sometime later Ralph got Evans to spend a day in a wheelchair to see what it was like.
Moved by the experience, Evans pushed for legislation to grant children with developmental disabilities the right to public school education. The Education for All Act passed in 1971. It was the first state legislation of its kind in the country.
During his career in public life, Ralph supported orca whale protection in Puget Sound, beginning with his helping end commercial captures and supporting their release from confinement.
He supported expanding access to voting, which ultimately led to mail-in voting.
Ralph also left his mark on the international arena as secretary of state and as a private citizen. As secretary of state he led business missions to the Far East to advance trade between that region and Washington in the period after economic reforms in China. In his private life, he made trips to East Africa as part of the Seattle Rotary Club’s campaign to eradicate polio there.
Working with Gov. Evans, he oversaw Washington becoming the first state to accept and permanently settle refugees from the Vietnam War after Saigon fell to the Communists. This was when California governor Jerry Brown was balking at settling refugees languishing at the Camp Pendleton Marine Base.
Ralph remained a Republican as the Republican Party drifted away from him, and I asked him why he remained a member of the party. “I’m still a Republican,” he replied, “because I want make sure somebody in those circles still has a conscience.”
In 2019 Ralph and Dan Evans were given the Margaret Chase Smith American Democracy Award for individual acts of political courage, uncommon character and selfless action in the realm of public service. (In 1950 Margaret Chase Smith, a Republican, was the first member of Congress to make a speech condemning the anti-Communist demagoguery of Sen. Joseph McCarthy.)
The Latin root of “republican” is res publica, the “public thing.” In contemporary political terms, it refers to public affairs, or the stewardship of the spaces we share. Watching present-day Republicans slash government programs geared toward public welfare, we can say that they seem to have lost their way.
Ralph Munro, a civic educator and a true republican, always knew the way.
— By Vernon Damani Johnson
• • •
We welcome letters to the editor responding to or amplifying subjects addressed in Community Voices. If you wish to contribute to Community Voices, please send an email with a subject proposal to Executive Editor Mike Sato and he will respond with guidelines.
Help keep the local news flowing — support nonpartisan, fact-based, no-paywall local journalism
with a donation to the Salish Current — news for people, not for profit.