Don Munro

Don Munro was a shoe manufacturer and philanthropist based in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Born in Newton, Massachusetts, he was a graduate of Yale University and served in the Army, where he was an editor of the Stars and Stripes newspaper. He moved to Hot Springs with his family in 1959 and entered the footwear business, acquiring three Arkansas manufacturing plants in 1972 and organizing his operations as Munro & Company, Inc. in 1975. As many American shoemakers shifted production overseas, Munro continued to manufacture domestically, building the firm into one of the largest privately held shoe manufacturers in the United States, with plants in Hot Springs, Mount Ida, Clarksville, and Wynne. He served as president of the American Apparel and Footwear Association and was inducted into the Footwear Hall of Fame and the Arkansas Business Hall of Fame.

Munro was a founding member of the Hot Springs Area Community Foundation in 1991 and served on the boards of the Arkansas Arts Center, the Arkansas chapter of the Nature Conservancy, and the National Park Community College Foundation, among other organizations. In 1992 he received the Pew Charitable Trusts’ American Philanthropy Award. He was inducted into the Arkansas Walk of Fame in 2021 and died in 2022 at the age of 94.