Written by Seth Stutman
Photos by Lanae Photo

Sponsored by East Village Place

Published in Longmeadow Neighbors (September 2023)

It’s been a journey from Ely Road, to the Carolinas and back again, but for Nate Munic, he’s enjoyed every step of the journey - and it’s all helped to inform who he is and what he does today.  

“I love the neighborhood that I live in and am fond of the neighbors and how walkable the various parts of town are.  My fondness for the community is also apparent in the work that I do for the town forum on Facebook, Longmeadow Pride and in the work that I do to help people with their technology in and around town.”

Nate Munic grew up with his parents Gerda and Jerry, and his brother Ari.  Munic’s history is full of intelligent dreamers. One of Nate’s grandparents helped to develop the microchip - 2 others survived the Holocaust.  Nate’s parents are doctors and pharmacists and Ari, Nate’s brother, is a mechanical engineer for General Dynamics.  

Munic took a non-traditional route to his success.  After struggling to find the support  he needed at Longmeadow High School, Munic enrolled at a boarding school in Madison, Connecticut that was better suited to support him and his learning style. Eventually he would go on to enroll for a stint at Middlesex Community College, Emerson College, and Holyoke Community College - but never grew to enjoy institutionalized education and preferred to seek education in his own way.  

In July of 2019, while working in sales for Schaller Acura in Manchester CT, Nate was riding his motorcycle home from work when he was T-Boned by an elderly man with cataracts in a Ford Explorer. Hospitalized for a week, he faced potential amputation of his lower right leg, had a fractured hand, and a minor injury to his left eye. Miraculously, his leg healed to the point of being stable and was operated on three times. He was in a wheelchair for 3 months, and needed a cane or walking stick for another year. This moment would set in motion a change in Nate’s life. He decided to take some of the most sour lemons that life had given him, and make some surprisingly good lemonade.

 A few short months after Nate was able to return to work, he received a recruitment call from a former manager of his. His former manager asked him to move to North Carolina to work for a Bentley, Aston Martin, & Maserati dealership. Nate excitedly accepted. Even though his injury cast some uncertainty, he knew he wanted to push himself to pursue the opportunity. Sadly, within 2 months of moving to North Carolina, the pandemic would arrive, stopping things dead in their tracks.  

Munic moved home at the end of the first year of the pandemic in 2020 as he missed his community, friends, and family and decided he needed to reconnect and heal with them after the pandemic.  

He kept finding that computers and technology were the one constant. No matter where he was or what he was doing, he was always helping people with their computers, phones, and other tech. This was something he had an affinity for from a very young age. Before he was even 5 years old he had managed to order over $250 in pokemon cards online using a family credit card that he had taken from his mother’s purse, in a time before Amazon or Google ever existed, much to the chagrin of his parents.

As he was transitioning back to New England, Munic had his idea - he had been offering technology support services on the side for many years, and utilizing his personality to put people at ease when it came to technology. Using the settlement money from the motorcycle accident, he was able to take the time he needed to plan and fund the endeavor, and  6 months later, The Friendly I.T Guy LLC was launched.  Munic aids residential and business with their tech needs, and has surrounded himself with professionals who can help get customers the one-stop services they need.  

In 2021, Munic again set out to build something that hadn’t existed - and keeping with themes of community and support , Munic organized the first Longmeadow Pride Celebration in the 238 year history of the town.  Thousands of people joined in on the party at the town commons replete with food trucks, music, dancing and community building to celebrate inclusivity.  

“To me it was an undeniable demonstration that this is a needed and wanted thing in our community especially coming out of the pandemic where isolation and loneliness  disproportionately affected the queer community. I think our first year of pride in 2021 was exactly what we needed at exactly the right time.”

This month, Munic is excited to celebrate the third annual event, and as always, the plan is for bigger and better. 

“My goal is to continue to expand our reach, our offerings, and our community engagement. We will continue to provide a safe space for people to be themselves authentically. This year we are trying to model our event in a sort of hybrid approach of Pride/Music/Crafts Festival pride where you bring a lawn chair and a blanket and find a comfortable place on the Green to relax and enjoy the various offerings of the day.”

Munic is a renaissance man, in the truest definition.  In addition to his day job, moderation of the town forums, and running the Longmeadow Pride festival, Munic has too many hobbies than we can fit in these columns.  He is an avid ballroom dancer, both socially and competitively.  He is a PC gamer and runs a gaming community online.  He collects beautiful rocks and minerals and enjoys Dungeons & Dragons. He sings and can play the piano, guitar and ukulele.  As a child, Munic loved to act, and was a student at the Drama Studio in Springfield for almost 10 years. His newest passion is travel, having visited Buenos Aires, Argentina, London, England, and Chilean Patagonia in the past 2 years.  

While he loves time abroad, Longmeadow will always feel like home for Munic.  

“For me Longmeadow is home but it's also a community.  As someone who greatly values community in their day-to-day lives and who makes time to build out intentional Community for both Longmeadow pride and the LGBTQ community as well as for the Jewish community, there is something to be said about the interconnectivity here in town. I also love how green it is and that it is a generally friendly and low-key town.  I also find that I align politically with a lot of the people in town and that I don't have to worry about being myself or expressing my opinions.”