Sometime in the late summer of 2014, we were driving down Folsom road in Boulder, Colorado when I saw a sign for fresh peaches.
“Park here, KB!” I told my husband— “I want some 🍑🍑🍑!!”.
We stopped at the little farmstand and walked over to see what they had. Everything looked yummy and my spirit rose at the sight of all the bounty from nature.
As we were perusing the fruit and vegetables an older man came around the stand. He was clearly the farmer with kind eyes and big, weathered hands. We started chatting.
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His name was Bob Munson and he was the long-time owner of Munson farm. (A legendary place in Boulder history come to find out later. Most long-term Boulderites knew about Bob and his farm.)
He and I hit it off immediately, he offered to take us out into the cornfield to pick out some of our own corn. Giddy as a little girl I followed him across the street and into the field. He told me all about the farm and its history, gave me fascinating farmer facts and we walked up and down rows of tall, fresh, bright green corn stalks under the vast blue Colorado sky. Heaven if you ask me.
That’s when things got interesting.
As I learned more about Bob’s life, I found out that not only was he a passionate farmer, he also was a pioneering engineer in the field of antennas. In fact, he invented, developed, and produced numerous microstrip antennas for nearly all U.S. programs (NASA, Army, Navy, Air Force).
He told me about the nearly 30 patents that he held and about his career going around and lecturing at various well-known institutions around the world.
I knew he was telling me the truth. His story filled me with awe and wonder and I loved every second of learning about his massive contribution to the transition from protruding antennas (antennas sticking out, like on old cars, you can imagine) to “conformal microstrip antenna” which had many advantages over traditional antennas.
I never wanted to leave, I could have listened to Bob all day! But that’s when things got even more fascinating.
While I am on one had very logical and pragmatic, I’m quite non-linear in the way I approach life. I love making lists and plans but the best moments of my life are when I surrender to the flow and let my body lead the way. (That way of being has led to adventures in exotic places, encounters with the Dalai Lama and Pharrell Williams, incredible job opportunities, escapades with a French lover, and communications with invisible realms. Yeah, it’s been quite the ride!)
Meeting Bob Munson and what he shared with me next is one of those magical and mysterious experiences I’ll always remember.
After we’ve chatted for about 20 minutes while walking in the field he started sharing with me HOW he’d been able to have so many patents and inventions. Looking at his biography (shared below) one could easily chalk his success up to “the guy is kind of a genius”. But that was not Bob’s experience.
“You know”, he said. “I don’t really come up with any of this stuff… this information is GIVEN to me.”
“How so?” I asked. “Well,” he continued, “most often, I’ll be on a plane and I doze off… and then when I wake up, I have a fully formulated invention in my mind. It’s like it’s been downloaded into my brain!”
It was clear as day. Mr. Munson believed that he was working with some sort of extraterrestrial or non-physical team that was sharing new technology with him. I don’t remember how he phrased it exactly, but that was the gist of it. It was like once he was open to it and willing to put it into action, the downloads kept coming.
There’s no doubt this man was brilliant. But when we spoke, he didn’t want to take all the credit for the inventions he’d made, even though he clearly loved his work and his field.
It’s funny because sharing this now, I feel that my creative writing process is similar to Bob’s innovation process in a way. While I don’t wake up on planes with alien technology (yet) I am clearly guided on what to write. For this week’s article for example, “I” wanted to write about gaslighting, but “inspiration” wanted me to write about Bob. So here I am.
Life is so much more mysterious than we can comprehend and I have a feeling that I’ve only just dripped my toe into the vastness of its miraculous expression. My children help me remember this every day.
At the end of our conversation, Bob shared about his wife and two sons. He was clearly such a great father. One of them came up to us and said “hi” and I could see that the son was like “here he goes again”. (I know that feeling from my own dad.) He loved him, but there was also that “oooh-dad-head-shake” vibe.
Before parting ways, Bob and I shook hands and he looked me in the eyes and I felt such a kinship with that man at that moment. Piled high with fresh corn and peaches I waved to Bob through my passenger window looking forward to my next visit.
That was the first and last time I saw him because he died suddenly a year later, mourned by many.
As I keep venturing onward on this mystical experience called “life on earth” with a breath and a big sigh, I’m happy I get to do so with the memory and spiritual guidance of my old pal Bob Munson – farmer, father, community member, openminded wild-card, and epic inventor – by my side.
With love,
Karna 💜
About Robert “Bob” E. Munson
In 1966 Bob and Marcy moved to Boulder to enjoy everything that Colorado had to offer. Bob was recruited by Ball Aerospace Corporation, to start the antenna division, a career he excelled at for 32 years. While raising two sons, Mike and Chris, Bob felt a pull to go back to his farming roots, so he and Marcy purchased 40 acres of land and a community legend, Munson Farms, was born. Bob managed to balance working at Ball Aerospace with running the farm with Marcy, and his passion for both professions was evident to all who knew him. During his engineering career, Bob held over 30 patents, was honored by the Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers, and received the University of Illinois Distinguished Alumni Award. He was a member of Tau Beta Pi and Eta Kappa Nu. He traveled worldwide to speak at numerous conferences on the topic of microstrip patch antennas and microstrip phased arrays. His colleagues at Ball were very important to him and enjoyed that he often showed up in his hunting boots and attire, sometimes carrying geese, ready to go to work. Farming, however, was Bob's other true passion and everyone he came in contact with witnessed this on a daily basis. With Marcy and his sons by his side, Munson Farms grew from a small corn stand on the Pearl Street Mall in front of the Boulder Courthouse to a Boulder mainstay, with stands at the corner of 75th and Valmont and a continual presence at the Boulder Farmers Market since 1978.
From LinkedIn in a tribute to Bob after his passing
Bob Munson, the farmer and electrical engineer whose invention of the microstrip antenna helped shape modern telecommunications, and whose family farm stand has been a popular local mainstay for decades, died suddenly on Monday at his home outside Boulder.
He was 74.
For years, he would rise before dawn to work the fields of Munson Farms at 75th Street and Valmont Road just east of the city limits, where his sweet corn, pumpkins and squash quickly earned a stellar reputation among restaurateurs, food banks and the farmers’ market community.
When the sun came up, he’d throw on a suit and head into what is now known as Ball Aerospace, where he opened the company’s antenna group, and later spearheaded one of the notable innovations in the history of miniature electronics.
“From cellphones to modern televisions to WiFi,” said Munson protege Farzin Lalezari, co-founder Boulder’s First RF Corporation. “If you go back and follow the roots of all that, you run into Bob Munson at the very beginning.”
Long before he was selling his inventions to NASA and the U.S. military, Munson was a farmboy in Donovan, Ill., hawking sweet corn from his bicycle for 35 cents per dozen ears.
He attended a high school of 17 people and, at his mother’s urging, enrolled at the University of Illinois, where he studied electrical engineering.
After college, Munson was hired to work at the Southern California office of the Ford Motor Company’s aerospace branch. On July 4, 1964, walking down Sunset Strip, he met a woman named Marcy, and grabbed her phone number just before she ran off to meet friends.
They were married eight months later, and remained together up until Munson’s death.
“Bob used to like to go duck hunting, and I went with him,” Marcy Munson recalled of their early courtship. “Since I went with him to go duck hunting, he asked me to marry him. I passed the test, I guess.”
Nice story💛
Interesting post Karna. I had never heard about Bob but he sounds like a person worth meeting and sharing notes !!!. Thanks for this wonderful story !!!