Kirk Munroe was an American author and conservationist. Charles Kirk Munroe was born in a log cabin near Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, the son of Charles and Susan (Hall) Munroe. His early years were spent on the frontier before his family relocated to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he attended school until the age of sixteen. In 1883, he publicly dropped the name "Charles". Kirk Munroe began working as a correspondent for the New York Sun in 1876. Three years later, he became the inaugural editor of Harper's Young People magazine, which he left in 1881. From 1879 to 1884, he was commodore of the New York Canoe Club. On September 15, 1883, he married Mary Barr, the daughter of Amelia E. Barr. The couple moved to Coconut Grove, Miami, Florida, in 1886. Mary joined him on many excursions aboard the Allapata, a 35-foot sharpie-ketch sailboat designed by Ralph Middleton Munroe. While in Florida, Munroe became a prominent member of the Florida Audubon Society, recommending a family friend, Guy Bradley, for the position of game warden in southern Florida. Bradley was eventually killed by plume hunters while on duty in the Everglades. Munroe created a tennis court on his home. This was the first tennis court in Miami-Dade County. Munroe helped to build what is now known as Ransom Everglades School.
