Robert A. G. Monks

Robert Augustus Gardner Monks (December 4, 1933 – April 29, 2025) was an American author, shareholder activist, corporate governance advocate, attorney, corporate director, venture capitalist and energy company executive — as well as political candidate and Reagan administration official.

Monks co-founded Institutional Shareholder Services, Lens Investment Management, Lens Governance Advisors and The Corporate Library (now part of GMI Ratings). He authored The Emperor’s Nightmare, Corpocracy, Citizens DisUnited, Reel and Rout: A Novel, The New Global Investors and, with Nell Minow, Watching the Watchers, Corporate Governance and Power & Accountability.

He was the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate from Maine in 1976, losing in a landslide to Democratic Senator Edmund Muskie. He again ran for Senate in 1996, but lost that Republican primary to Susan Collins. He also unsuccessfully challenged longtime Republican Senator Margaret Chase Smith in the 1972 Republican primary. In 1977, Monks was named Chair of the Maine Republican Party. He resigned as party chair in 1978.

Early life and education Monks was born in Boston on December 4, 1933. He was the son of Rev. G. Gardner Monks and Katharine Knowles. Rev. Monks was the founding headmaster of Lenox School for Boys and Canon of the Washington Cathedral. Monks was educated at St. Paul's School, Harvard College, Cambridge University and Harvard Law School. At Cambridge, he was a member of the winning Cambridge University Boat Club boat in the 1955 edition of The Boat Race, a traditional competition between Cambridge and Oxford Universities.

Career

Personal life and death Monks lived on an island in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, with his wife, née Millicent Carnegie Sprague (d. 2023), great-granddaughter of Thomas Carnegie, the younger brother of Andrew Carnegie. The couple married in 1954 and had two children.

Monks continued to affiliate with the Republican Party but was increasingly distant from it in his later years. He supported Barack Obama's re-election in 2012.

Monks died from pancreatic cancer at his home, on April 29, 2025, at the age of 91.

Electoral history

1972

1976

1996