Edwin S. Munger, Ph.D. :::
Edwin S. Munger
Graduated in 1939
Inducted in 1995
Edwin S. Munger, Ph.D., a 1939 graduate, is a world-recognized authority on Africa. He has
traveled to the continent 86 times since 1947, visiting all African countries. Earning his
Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctorate degrees from the University of Chicago, he has been a professor
of African History and Politics at California Institute of Technology since 1960. As the first
Fulbright Scholar to Africa, Munger was a founder-trustee of the African Studies Association and
the U.S.-South African Leader Program, a board member of the Institute of Race Relations in South
Africa, and a board member of the Pasadena NAACP. For 14 years he was president of the L.S.B.
Leakey Foundation. He also launched the Baldwin Fellowships, which helped 40 Africans obtain
advanced degrees in archaeology. Since 1985 he has been president of the Cape of Good Hope
Foundation, sending more than two million dollars worth of books to largely black universities in
southern Africa. Munger is the author of twelve books including his autobiography and a novel on
Rwanda. He is writing a four volume study of ethnic chess sets representing many of the 300
countries and islands he has visited. He amassed a library of over 45,000 volumes on Sub-Saharan
Africa, the largest private collection in the U.S. and a unique cultural resource.