Rie Muñoz

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 and then moved with her family to the Netherlands as a child. Rie and a sibling were returned to the US by their parents before the outbreak of World War II, 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.

Career In Muñoz's first years in Alaska, she worked as a teacher on King Island.

Muñoz's work featured watercolors, and she created prints of Alaska life. Muñoz worked as a writer and cartoonist for the Juneau Empire. She worked as a museum curator, in addition to her work as a full-time artist. 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, where Juan was employed as a geologist. The couple had a home near the East Channel Bridge. The couple later returned to Alaska.

Her daughter-in-law is Alaska State Representative Cathy Muñoz who served from 2009-2017. In 2015, Rie Muñoz died in Juneau, Alaska of a stroke, aged 93.

In 2024, Muñoz's son digitized photographs her husband had taken during the couple's time on King Island and donated the originals to the Katirvik Cultural Center.