caption death_date birth_place birth_date known_for article_title education name occupation
educator and philanthropist 23 april 1896 west river , nova scotia 12 november 1825 rescuing dalhousie university george munro -lrb- philanthropist -rrb-
 pictou academy george munro educator publisher
george munro -lrb- philanthropist -rrb-

george munro -lrb- 12 november 1825 -- 23 april 1896 -rrb- was a canadian educator and philanthropist from nova scotia .
he was born in west river , pictou county , nova scotia .
after basic schooling he became an apprentice at the age of 12 with a local newspaper known as the observer .
after two years he continued his education attending the new glasgow school -lrb- 1839 - 1842 -rrb- .
after this he taught for a year to raise enough money to attend pictou academy .
around 1850 , munro moved to halifax and taught natural philosophy and mathematics at the free church academy .
he eventually became the school 's principal before leaving for new york city in 1856 .
five years later in 1861 , he joined the publishing firm irwin p. beadle and company .
in 1863 the firm broke up and munro entered in a partnership with beadle and ended up owning the company a year later .
munro became rich from his publishing company and in 1879 began donating to dalhousie university under the influence of his brother-in-law , a member of the university 's board of governors .
at the time dalhousie 's total income was only $ 6,600 , and the university was in danger of shutting down .
in all munro gave approximately $ 333,000 to the university -lrb- about $ 8 million in today 's funds -rrb- which included endowed professorships and bursaries .
to commemorate his generosity , a university holiday , munro day , is celebrated each year on the first friday of february .
