Keith Monroe (22 August 1915 – 30 August 2003) was an American author of children's science fiction and of books and magazine articles about Boy Scouting.^[1]

Monroe attended Stanford University and UCLA. He worked as a reporter for the New York Herald Tribune, for advertising and public relations firms, and for North American Rockwell. At times, he was a full-time freelance writer.^{[citation needed]}

His work appeared in such magazines as Saturday Evening Post, New Yorker, |Harper's, Blue Book, Galaxy, Argosy, Boys' Life, and Scouting. His pseudonyms included Donald Keith, Rice E. Cochran, and Dale Colombo.^[2]

Scouting

Monroe was deeply involved with Scouting. He served as Scoutmaster for Troop 2 in Santa Monica, California from its founding in December 1945 until 1987.^[1]

He wrote articles for Scouting, the magazine for adult Scout leaders; merit badge instruction pamphlets; and fiction for Boys' Life. Under the name Rice E. Cochran, he published Be Prepared!, a humorous memoir of his experiences as a Scoutmaster.It was the basis for the 1953 movie Mister Scoutmaster.^[1]

Monroe was a recipient of the Silver Beaver Award.^[2]

Science fiction

Collaborating under the pseudonym Donald Keith with his father, Donald Monroe, Keith Monroe wrote the Time Machine series, originally published in Boys' Life between 1959 and 1989.^[2]

Donald Keith also contributed stories to Galaxy Science Fiction and Blue Book.^{[citation needed]}

Using the pseudonym Dale Colombo, Keith Monroe published in Boys' Life a series about Scouts in space, featuring a protagonist named Ed Linden, set aboard the spaceship Magellan. These Scouts had been born in interstellar space during the decades-long journey from Earth to planets orbiting a distant star.^{[citation needed]}