Rie Muñoz (August 17, 1921 – April 6, 2015) was an American artist and Bureau of Indian Affairs educator.

Early life

Muñoz was born Marie Mounier in

Van Nuys, California Van Nuys () is a neighborhood in the central San Fernando Valley region of Los Angeles, California. Home to Van Nuys Airport and the Valley Municipal Building, it is the most populous neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley. History In 1909 ...

and then moved with her family to the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

as a child. Rie and a sibling were returned to the US by their parents before the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, where they lived with family friends. The parents intended to follow, but were unable to leave for seven years following the

German invasion of the Netherlands The German invasion of the Netherlands ( nl, Duitse aanval op Nederland), otherwise known as the Battle of the Netherlands ( nl, Slag om Nederland), was a military campaign part of Case Yellow (german: Fall Gelb), the Nazi German invasion of t ...

. In the US, Muñoz studied art at

Washington and Lee University , mottoeng = "Not Unmindful of the Future" , established = , type = Private liberal arts university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.092 billion (2021) , president = William C. Dudley , provost = Lena Hill , city = Lexing ...

. She visited

Juneau, Alaska The City and Borough of Juneau, more commonly known simply as Juneau ( ; tli, Dzánti K'ihéeni ), is the capital city of the state of Alaska. Located in the Gastineau Channel and the Alaskan panhandle, it is a unified municipality A mu ...

in 1951 as a visitor, but became enamored of

Southeast Alaska Southeast Alaska, colloquially referred to as the Alaska(n) Panhandle, is the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Alaska, bordered to the east and north by the northern half of the Canadian province of British Columbia (and a small par ...

and decided to stay.

Career

Muñoz' work featured watercolors, and she created prints of Alaska life. Muñoz taught school in rural Alaska, and worked as a writer and cartoonist for the

Juneau Empire The ''Juneau Empire'' is a newspaper in Juneau, Alaska, United States. It was founded on November 2, 1912, as the ''Alaska Daily Empire''. In 1969 Morris Communications bought the newspaper. Mark Bryan was appointed publisher in 2009, but left ...

. She worked as a museum curator, in addition to her work as a full-time artist. Her art has been featured in museums outside of Alaska, including the

Frye Art Museum The Frye Art Museum is a modern and contemporary art museum located in the First Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1952 to house the collection of Charles and Emma Frye and has since grown to include rotating temporary ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

. She received the University of Alaska's Honorary Doctorate of Humanities Degree in May of 1999

Personal life

In 1957, Muñoz and her husband, Juan, spent a year away from Alaska. Juan and Rie Muñoz lived at the time on

Mercer Island, Washington Mercer Island is a city in King County, Washington, United States, located on an island of the same name in the southern portion of Lake Washington. Mercer Island is in the Seattle metropolitan area, with Seattle to its west and Bellevue t ...

, where Juan was employed as a

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, alt ...

. The couple had a home near the

East Channel Bridge The East Channel Bridge is a bridge carrying Interstate 90 from Mercer Island, Washington, to Bellevue, Washington, over the East Channel of Lake Washington, which separates Mercer Island from the rest of the Eastside. The original bridge was ...

. The couple later returned to Alaska. Juan and Rie Muñoz had two sons, Felipe and Juan, Jr. Felipe died from kidney cancer as a child. Juan and Rie divorced in 1963, and Rie subsequently settled in Juneau, where she spent the rest of her life. Her daughter-in-law is

Alaska State Representative The Alaska State House of Representatives is the lower house in the Alaska Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Alaska. The House is composed of 40 members, each of whom represents a district of approximately 17,756 people pe ...

Cathy Muñoz who served from 2009-2017. In 2015, Rie Muñoz died in

of a stroke, aged 93.

Legacy

Muñoz's work is featured on

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S ...

's Heirloom Birth Certificate.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Munoz, Rie 1921 births 2015 deaths American women artists Artists from Alaska Artists from Los Angeles Educators from Alaska American women educators People from Juneau, Alaska People from Van Nuys, Los Angeles Washington and Lee University alumni American expatriates in the Netherlands