August 19, 2011
Jim Guyot is a professor of political science at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and in the School of Public Affairs at Bernard M. Baruch College, CUNY. He and his wife Dotty have lived in Leonia since 1969 and raised three children. In 2003, Jim and Dotty founded the Pre-Collegiate Program in Yangon, Myanmar (Burma) to help Myanmar high school graduates obtain full-ride scholarships to liberal arts colleges in the U.S., Canada, and Japan. The program identifies academically advanced students and works with them over the course of 18 months to acclimate them to the rigors of college. Since the program’s inception more than 80 Myanmar students have gained admittance to college. Dotty spends a good portion of the year in Myanmar overseeing all aspects of the program; Jim joins her during semester breaks and summer vacation. While in Leonia, Jim can be found jogging through neighborhoods at dawn.
Q: How did you meet Dotty?
A: It was love at first sight for me, when I saw her in the Yale Library. We were both pursuing our PhDs there, hers in Southeast Asian studies, mine in Political Science. Later, when a friend introduced us, we were happy to discover we were both Midwesterners – Chicago and Michigan.
Q: How did you both get interested in Burma, the world’s longest running military dictatorship now known as Myanmar?
A: In the sixties, Dottie was doing her field research in Burma and I went along as a Fulbright research student. My topic was the collapse of the civil service system after Burma achieved independence from Britain. In particular, why it collapsed there and not in neighboring Malaysia. We lived there for one-and-a-half years in 1961 and 1962. Our first child was born there.
Q: Do you speak Burmese?
A: Dotty studied Burmese at Yale and used it in her research. I speak a scattering for diplomatic purposes.
Q: Have you ever been afraid living in Burma?
A: It’s a safe place for those with foreign passports.
Q: What is public affairs?
A: Whatever is not private business or religion: politics, policy making, not-for-profit organizations, government administration, higher education management. My thesis was on American bureaucrats in the public compared to the private sector.
Q: Why did you move to Leonia?
A: We both came to teach Political Science at Columbia University. Leonia was a faculty bedroom then, the Hyde Park of the New York metropolitan area, and was fifteen minutes closer to work than Teaneck, which was where we originally lived when we moved from California in 1968.
Q: Did your children attend Leonia schools?
A: All three of our children did, and we met many wonderful people in town through that connection. Dan learned Thai as an exchange student after high school and became an entomologist. Erik began his career as a human rights activist in Washington D.C. and our daughter Khin Khin is a teacher.
Q: As an educator, were you involved with Leonia schools?
A: I served one term on the Board of Education. Dotty and I also taught at the alternative high school in the 1970s. I taught about elections with Hans Spiegel; Dotty taught Asian cooking as an approach to Asian cultures.
Q: What do you do in your free time?
A: I enjoy pre-dawn running through Leonia. I’ve run in two beautiful marathons: Grandma’s Marathon along the shores of Lake Superior, and the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington D.C., along the Potomac River.
Q: Do you have a favorite Leonia tradition?
A: Christmas caroling in our neighborhood with Ed and Virginia Brewer, and our kids, when they were younger. It was a tradition Dotty brought with her from Hyde Park, when she attended the University of Chicago.
Q: Is singing a hobby?
A: I used to sing in the Yale Russian Chorus. Last fall we sang at Duke University to celebrate the 80th birthday of the founding director of the chorus. Dotty and I also enjoy Balkan folk dancing. To me, the soul of a country is its music.
Q: What’s your favorite vacation spot?
A: We spend much of our summer on Lake Superior, in northern Michigan, “by the shores of Gitchie Goumee,/by the shining Big-Sea-Water.” We’ve been going there for years.
Q: Where would you still like to travel?
A: We’ve devoted so much of our lives to Southeast Asia, Burma in particular. I think a tour of Denmark or Vienna, for the contrast, would be nice.
Q: Did you have a famous Leonia neighbor?
A: Robert Ludlum. I’m still embarrassed to say I haven’t read one of his books.
Q: What’s the last good book you read?
A: Ian Morris’ “Why the West Rules – For Now.”
Q: Can you recommend a book to read on Burma?
A: “The River of Lost Footsteps,” by Thant Myint Oo. It’s a combination of history and memoir, published three years ago.
Q: What’s your favorite bit of Leonia history or trivia?
A: That Leonia has the largest number of professional oboe players per capita in the world! That factoid came from our friend Virginia Brewer, who’s one of them.
Q: Do you have a favorite cause?
A: The Burmese students we bring to the U.S. We are always looking for homes for them to stay in during the Christmas break.
Leonia Lives 