The Ida May Munro Bursary

Ida May Munro Born Ida May Carpenter on May 5, 1900 in Cornwall, Ontario to Norman and Annie Carpenter, the youngest of four children, May was adventurous for her time. She played the position of goalie with the Cornwall Women’s Hockey team; she was a legal secretary following her graduation from school; and in 1920, she married Ralph Munro, a young handsome serviceman who raced about on his motorcycle, newly returned from serving in World War I. With her curly red hair, bright mind and demure demeanor, May settled down in circumstances far from, her protected city life.

May lived with Ralph on a fifty-acre farm near Oxford Mills, Ontario with no electricity and no running water, worked hard and was tireless in supporting the successes of her ten children throughout their lives. Always a ‘lady’, May was an avid reader, an excellent baker using her old wood stove, and a wonderful role model for her children and those around her.

Life was not easy. She endured the sudden death of a seven-year old daughter who was stricken with tetanus in 1939. During World War II, May and the younger children struggled with work on the farm, while her husband and two eldest sons were in the military. Particularly difficult at this time came the information that one son was wounded in action in Holland, and then another became a prisoner of war for 16 months after his bomber was shot down during a raid on Berlin. In 1976 a daughter succumbed to cancer. May lovingly cared for her dying and often difficult husband in his last years before his death in 1977, and died herself in January 1979, having performed her duty to those she loved.

She once wrote the following advice in her eight-year old daughter's ‘Autograph Book’, and in retrospect, she lived accordingly: 'Look for the flowers on the side of the road, Laugh and love and be strong. Try to lighten another's load Each day as you go along.' She was a remarkable woman. Interested in applying?