Roland Gail "RG" Monroe, age 90, of Morehead City, North Carolina, passed away peacefully on March 1, 2026, at Crystal Coast Hospice, Newport, North Carolina.

RG, son of Roland Gail Monroe, Senior, and Viola Monroe, was born 17 July 1935 in Bismark, North Dakota. Basic schooling in Butler, Pennsylvania was followed by the bachelor’s degree from Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, then, in 1957 he joined the United States Marine Corps Reserve, making a perfect score on the entrance exam, thought to be first individual to do so. He completed recruit training with Platoon 346, Third Recruit Training Battalion, Parris Island, South Carolina. (Of note: one of his fellow recruits was the celebrated major league baseball player Roberto Clemente.) An enthusiastic supporter of the Marine Corps throughout his life, RG will certainly be assigned some guard duty on heavenly streets.

In the early 1960's, RG began his career helping to devise complex operations for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (the PANYNJ).

When the PANYNJ moved to replace male police officers with female toll collectors at all of its tunnels and bridges connecting NY and NJ, RG was the logical choice to work on implementing the change. During this assignment he met and married Paula Ann Rutkowsky. With characteristic efficiency the couple whose first date was in January 1963, announced their engagement in April 1963, and were married on September 7, that same year, in Wilton, Connecticut. Soon they moved to Village Creek, South Norwalk, Connecticut, the first racially integrated, planned community in the United States. Here their two children, David MacDonald, born 1965, and Lisa Adrienne, born 1967, absorbed RG’s incredible assortment of facts across all subjects, unmatched by mere mortals. His was a beautiful mind, paired with a kind heart, with never a malicious deed or unkind word for others.

The young RG was a novice scuba diver and had won and placed in various sports car races with his VW Beetle and Morgan Roadster. The mature, soft-mannered RG guided his family through challenging lives.

He owned two sailboats, both named September 7, which he navigated for offshore trips from the Carolinas to the north shores of Maine. He arranged for the family to travel together with him on business trips in many US states and in Great Britain. His sharp mind drew him always to new interests. Through to 2005 he held a NYC mayoral appointment as statistical analyst and planner. He was also a respected independent consultant for clients such as American Express in London, England. In July 1978, RG moved the family to 644 Broadway, Manhattan, to settle as one of the first families to successfully convert a lower Manhattan commercial space to legal, spacious living quarters. In 1982 they moved to Park Slope, Brooklyn and continued a 36-year love affair with Brooklyn. In 2018, a retirement decision brought the couple to Morehead City, North Carolina.

Roland, an Orthodox Christian, is survived by his wife of 63 years, Paula Ann Monroe and his son, David MacDonald Monroe and daughter-in-law Scarlet Monroe.

RG was predeceased by his parents, his younger sister, Martha, and beloved daughter Lisa Adrienne Monroe.

RG’s ashes will be interred in the family plot in St. Vladimir’s Cemetery, Jackson, New Jersey. Consider, if you wish, honoring his memory with a donation to the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation or the Lehigh University Scholarship Fund.

Family and friends are welcome to submit online condolences at www.mundenfuneralhome.net.

Arrangements by Munden Funeral Home & Crematory in Morehead City, NC.