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Walter Munn
19 November 1931 - 31 March 2001
From Scottish Chess, Nr. 173, April 2001, pp 12/13.
When Walter Munn became President of the Scottish Chess Association in 1969, he brought an inclusive and friendly team based approach which helped transform chess in Scotland. He came into the role with a wealth of experience in organising chess from his local club to top quality congresses.
As an accountant, he understood the importance of establishing a sound financial base and set about crafting this with the involvement and agreement of players and organisers throughout Scotland.
He helped enhance the Scottish Championships by establishing popular venues which attracted players to the many social events run, as well as chessplaying. And at many chess events, he was supported by his wife Margaret and for many years by his children Rosanne and Derek. Walter remained as President for 16 years, then was elected Honorary President, which he remained until his death.
Our thoughts are with his wife and family.
John Glendinning, SCA President
From Scottish Chess, Nr. 174, June 2001, pp 7/8.
I was saddened to read of the death of Walter Munn [Scottish Chess 173]. My memories of Walter go back to 1967, when I joined Cathcart Chess Club. It did not take long for me to note that he played a significant role in making the club rooms in Craig Road such a warm and welcoming place for the members in general, and new members in particular. He and his wife, Margaret, also helped run the tea room that added noise and colour to an already bustling atmosphere. Walter played a major part in the steady progress of Cathcart Chess Club and he would later carry out similar sterling work with Giffnock Chess Club. In a broader sense, however, he will chiefly be remembered for the many years he spent as President of the Scottish Chess Association, when his leadership and initiative resulted in a number of successes. He was a tireless worker on behalf of chess in Scotland and although latterly he may not have been so involved in organisational matters, his support and advice was still available, something I can attest to personally. He will be missed.
Alan McGowan
From The Scotsman of April 10th, 2001.
Walter Munn
by JOHN B HENDERSON
WALTER Munn was president of the Scottish Chess Association for 16 years, and proved an inspired choice for the top job in the aftermath of the controversial reign of the noted bridge designer, Dr William Fairhurst.
It was often said of him that he was born to be an accountant, and on leaving Hutcheson's Grammar School in Glasgow he joined the firm of Harold Sinclair and Blair, duly becoming a chartered accountant in the mid-Fifties. While there he met another employee, Margaret Herbetson. They got engaged shortly after he became a CA and married in 1958.
He later moved on to become a partner in another Glasgow-based company, Wardhaugh and McVean, before opting to take the bold step at that time of becoming a freelance accountant from home, where he provided professionally meticulous and immaculate work for a select clientele who enjoyed his personal service.
He had a lifelong interest in chess and became an active member of the Cathcart Chess Club and a dedicated correspondence player. He was instrumental in creating the Scottish Correspondence Chess Association in 1962 with his friend and neighbour, Bernard Partridge. With the imminent demise of Busby & Clarkston Chess Club in the early Sixties, he had the vision to develop the growth of chess in his own area by forming a new club in the leafy suburbs of Clarkston in 1965. The new club, Giffnock & Clarkston, met (as it still does today) in Rhuallan House.
Walter's commitment, organisational skills, and enthusiasm quickly raised the club's status and in no time at all it became one of the largest and most active in the country. He was the club's first secretary and remained in the post until September last year, when, after 35 years' service, he retired because of persistent ill-health.
His organisational skills were called on to the full during one of the most challenging periods in the game's history in Scotland . Because of an antiquated structure in the Scottish Chess Association that meant that each year a different club took the top posts in the organisation, Dr Fairhurst decided to take control of the SCA in 1959 and changed the rules to declare himself president and appoint his own office-bearers. By and large, this worked out better than the muddle that had gone before. Unfortunately, Dr Fairhurst also had a reputation for ruling the game with more iron in his fist than was needed in the design of his beloved Tay Bridge . Things came to a head during the selection of the Scottish team to play in the 1968 Lugano Olympiad, when Dr Fairhurst refused to allow one of the chosen players to join the team. There was a very public row that led to several resignations from the board and the split from the governing body of Junior Chess.
Dr Fairhurst was then told that his time as president had now reached an end. But since there were no elections for the top post, it fell on Fairhurst himself to appoint his successor. Several candidates made the daunting trip to Torr Hall, his imposing mansion in Bridge of Weir , to be personally vetted. One candidate stood out: Walter Munn, the quiet-spoken Glasgow chartered accountant with a gift for administration.
On assuming the presidency in 1969, Walter proved to be a breath of fresh air for the game and a figure of respect who was popular with the grassroots. He immediately set about demo-cratising the SCA with a proper board structure and annual elections and plotted a true course of success for chess in Scotland , sacrificing his own playing career in favour of organisation.
Not only did he bring about some much-welcome administration and financial rigour to the SCA, he was also the key figure in many monumental improvements that took place in through the Sixties and Seventies, such as the annual Scottish Championship and Glasgow Congresses. Along with the unstinting help and support of his own family and a dedicated team of officials and workers, he created such a special atmosphere at these tournaments - particularly the flagship event of the Scottish Championship with the popular decision to use the alternate venues of Troon and St Andrews .
The highlight of his presidency came in 1984 when the SCA, one of the world's oldest chess associations, celebrated its centenary year. Walter built around him an able team that more than met the challenge for that demanding year - and without going over budget! The main features of the celebrations were the staging of the World Microcomputer Championships in Glasgow, the Scottish Centenary Grandmaster Tournament in Troon, and the official visit to Glasgow of the then world champion, Anatoly Karpov.
The Fischer boom of the late Sixties and early Seventies, with more and more people worldwide taking up chess, coincided with him being secretary of the Glasgow Congress, the biggest and most popular tournament in the country at the time, which supported Scotland 's only international event. It was through Walter's perseverance that a similar-styled junior international was added to the congress.
Back at Giffnock & Clarkston, he added a large junior feeder club where he developed and wrote all of the teaching aids. He also put in many years of dedicated input to local schools in his area. One of those, Ashcraig, was a special needs school for the disabled. His work there caught the eye of Peter McCann, Lord Provost of Glasgow , himself disabled, who offered Walter the services of his office and the facilities of Glasgow City Chambers to set up the world's first junior international chess tournament for the disabled.
Chess prospered rapidly during Munn's inspired leadership and he became a father figure to a whole generation of players. All good things must come to an end, and in 1985, on announcing his resignation a year in advance to culminate in the end of the centenary year celebrations, he relinquished his high-profile post to become the first person to be made the honorary president of the SCA.
A self-effacing character with a wickedly dry sense of humour, it was impossible not to like - and be liked by - Walter. He got on well with everyone. Despite all the many events, functions and committees he was involved in throughout his distinguished chess career, no-one ever had a bad word to say about him - they would accept his rulings (always invariably right) and listen carefully to his wise council.
He was a much loved and caring family man and will be greatly missed by his devoted wife, Margaret, children, Derek and Rosanne, and grandchildren, Alexander and Rachel - and by the many friends and colleagues he made wherever he went in life and in the chess world.
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