He made national headlines when he left Harvard for Miles College, a historically black and then-unaccredited institution in Birmingham, Alabama.

Monro, born in Massachusetts and educated at Phillips Academy in Andover, worked as a journalist after graduating from Harvard University in 1935.

[5] Initially enlisting for the public relations department of the Navy, Monro later became a damage control officer on the USS Enterprise.

[7] Originally intending to continue his career as a journalist after the war, he was convinced to work at Harvard’s Office of Veterans Affairs.

[4] In a 1960 educational conference, he expressed dismay over college admissions, as they were "starving the development of [...] children, whose only fault is that they are poor or a wrong color".

[15] Monro met Lucius Pitts, president of Miles College, at the annual meeting of the American Teachers Association in 1962.

Despite being visibly shaken by the unrest, Monro was interested to return and asked to assist in Miles College basic-skills workshop the following summer.

Aware of the impression leaving one of the most prestigious positions in American education for a lowly paid role at an unaccredited college gave, Monro said: "I want to disassociate myself from any idea that this is a sacrifice.

[2] Robert J. Donovan, spending some time with Monro for the San Francisco Examiner in 1972, described him as "resoundingly happy" at Miles College.

Monro found the atmosphere at Miles to be different from selective schools of the Northeast, as its students, often dividing their time between work and class, believed that college could do something for them and were serious in their studies.

[18] At the unveiling, S. Allen Counter, the foundation's executive director, said: "To give up a powerful career at Harvard to go and work at a minority school is just amazing".

After working for a couple of years for the Guaranty Trust Company and J. Walter Thompson, he attended the General Theological Seminary, graduating in 1943.

[27][25] He attended the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, to pursue a Ph.D in statistics under the supervision of Herbert Robbins, with whom he developed the Robbins–Monro algorithm.

[28] A rule at the university prevented students who pre-published doctoral work from being awarded their degree, but his advisor published the work before Monro finished his Ph.D, meaning that he never received his Ph.D.[b] Monro was then employed by New York City, until he was hired as associate professor of industrial engineering by Lehigh University.