Robotics Industry Honors George Munson

Former Newtown resident George E. Munson was one of four international robotics industry leaders who received the prestigious 2003 Engelberger Robotics Awards recently at the 34th International Symposium on Robotics in Rosemont, Ill.

Named in honor of Joseph F. Engelberger, a Newtown resident who is considered throughout the world as the “father of robotics,” the award honors significant achievements in the areas of application, technology, education, and leadership.

George Munson spent his 41-year career in the factory automation and robotics fields. He was one of the group of engineers who, together with Joe Engelberger and George Devol, conceived the Unimate, the world’s first industrial robot, in the late 1950s. Mr Munson supervised the installation of the first robots into a production operation in a General Motors Plant in Trenton, N.J., in 1961 and was part of the development group that founded Unimation, Inc, the world’s first robotics company.

A Newtown resident from 1962 to 1984, Mr Munson held several key management posts at Unimation including vice president and general manager of Unimation’s systems division and vice president of marketing. He was instrumental in developing robots for applications in machining and in foundries.

 Unimation was sold to Westinghouse Corporation in 1982. Mr Munson retired from the company and took a post as director of industrial relations for the Center for Robotic Systems in Microelectronics (CRSM) at the University of California at Santa Barbara, Calif. He later served as vice president of Shilling Development, an underwater robotic vehicle company in Davis, Calif., and consulted with Creative Robotic Applications, a systems integration company in Atlanta, Ga.

The Engelberger Robotics Awards are presented annually by Robotic Industries Association (RIA), the industry’s trade group that represents some 250 North American companies actively involved in robotics. Each winner receives a $4,000 honorarium and a commemorative medallion.

Mr Munson received the award for application. Other winners were Stefan Muller of KUKA Roboter GmbH in Augusburg, Germany, for leadership; William Townsend of Barrett Technology, Inc, Cambridge, Mass., for technology development, and Dr Zeungnam Zenn Bien of the Republic of Korea, for education.

George Munson and his wife Marcella were very active Newtown residents. Mrs Munson was a teacher at Middle Gate School for 13 years. George Munson was a member of the Men’s Literary Club of Newtown Street.

The Munsons moved to Atlanta, Ga., in 1984–85, then returned to Connecticut and lived in Southbury until 1987, when they moved to Santa Barbara, where he joined the staff of the University of California. The couple’s youngest daughter, Susan Johnson, a former school teacher, lives with her husband Allan and two children in Southbury, where Mr Johnson owns a jewelry store, Mine Hill Jewelry.

George Munson is a founding member of the Robotics International of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, a past member of its board of directors, and a past president. He is a certified manufacturing engineer and was named a fellow of the Society of Manufacturing in 1988. He played a key role in the formation of the International Federation of Robotics. A recognized speaker and writer on international competition issues, he is currently writing a book about the evolution of manufacturing technology, automation, and robotics.

The Munsons are now retired and living in Dana Point, Calif. Mrs Munson is an enthusiastic gardener, stained glass artist, and quilt designer and maker. Mr Munson enjoys woodworking and model shipmaking. He serves as a volunteer ship’s engineer on the Ocean Institute’s Brig Pilgrim, a full-size replica of the tall ship that Richard Henry Dana immortalized in the classic Two Years Before the Mast, and the schooner Spirit of Dana Point, a full-size replica of the 18th Century privateer.