Burt Levin died on October 31st at age 86. Burt taught part-time in the Political Science Department at Carleton as the SIT Investment Visiting Professor of Asian Policy from 1994 until the fall of 2013. He enriched his classes with accounts of his long career in the U.S. State Department at embassies and consulates in Taipei, Jakarta, Hong Kong, Bangkok, and finally as the Ambassador to Burma from 1987–1990. After his retirement from the State Department, he headed the Asia Society in Hong Kong.
Burt’s fall and spring courses here were legendary. He was a great storyteller and, when teaching with Roy Grow or other faculty, Burt would supply the practical side of International Relations theory. He inspired many students to lead lives of public service. He received an Honorary Degree from Carleton in 1993.
Burt moved easily in the world of diplomats, trusted by U.S. presidents of both parties. But he always retained a self-deprecating sense of humor and humility. He was kind, thoughtful, funny, and interested in his students and all those around him. In the words of one of his colleagues, “He was a national treasure.”
Burt is survived by his wife, Lily, and children, Cliff ’87 and Ali ’88. A more complete obituary is attached.
In lieu of a campus memorial service, Carleton will hold a symposium in Burt’s honor during the Alumni Reunion on Friday, June 16th at 10am.
Please keep all of Burt’s family, friends, former colleagues, and students in your thoughts and prayers.
Comments
I only came back to Carleton in 2000, after eighteen years in the hinterland (Peace Corps in Togo and graduate school in the Chicago area). Burt played a role in my return, since he worked with faculty and staff at Carleton to help secure a major Starr Foundation grant for the college, to launch our cross-cultural studies concentration and also fund up to eight full scholarships per year for students from East, Southeast and South Asia. This is just one example of Ambassador Levin drawing on his wide network of contacts, his knowledge of the region and his vision for the college's future to help us to transform the campus through a growing presenence of superbly-talented international students. Burt did not work on any of this alone. He and Lily knew relevant people across Asia from long years of service, but he and President Lewis and Dean Paul Thiboutot and Professor Roy Grow and other faculty and staff colleagues thought through this partnership with the Starr Foundation very carefully, to assure that new international students would receive the support they needed to thrive at Carleton. The Starr Foundation grant brought Petra Crosby to campus as director of international student programs and also helped to allow the admissions office to create a position with primary responsibility for international student recruitment (my job). Sixteen years later, Carleton has gone from having about 1% international students to nearly 10% in 2016, not limited to Asia, but including students from every continent but Antartica and more than thirty countries. As the years have gone by, faculty and staff and alumni (including graduates of the college since 2000) have recognized the importance of international diversity in the student body and some have stepped forward to help endow scholarships to assure that Carleton can remain internationally diverse into the future, though this is an ongoing process. After the initial Starr grant in 1999, the college received two further grants of $5 Million and the relationship with the Starr Foundation allowed the college to firmly establish its cross cultural studies concentration and international student presence. Without Ambassador Levin's support, it's not certain that Carleton would have even known of this potential source of support. After sixteen rewarding years in Northfield, I need to express my appreciation for his role in making the Carleton of 2016 even more diverse than the Carleton I attended from 1978-82. There are talented Carleton alumni around the world, both American and international, who have benefited from his teaching and mentoring for over twenty years. That's quite a legacy, especially for a second career after an amazing first career as a diplomat. We will keep Burt and his family in our thoughts and prayers, but also offer up a prayer of gratitude for all that he did to make Carleton a better and stronger institution during his long association with the college. There are many more examples, so this is just a first attempt to put into words what we all feel in our hearts and know with our minds.
I had the pleasure of getting to know Burt on a Faculty Study Tour to Japan in 2001. He was the oldest faculty member on the tour, and I was the youngest. He took me under his wing and I learned so much from his stories, knowledge and just kindness during that time. He instituted Happy Hour whenever we could and we learned as much during those times, as we did on our excursions and other visits.
I hope his family will always know what a great, positive influence he was on so many!
Such a loss! Burt Levin gave so much to Carleton and we were lucky to call him a friend. He will be dearly missed.
I had two classes with Burt and he instructed me applying for policy school programs during my senior year at Carleton. He himself is a Columbia SIPA graduate and I ended up going to Johns Hopkins SAIS- he offered me enormous help during application and after receiving offers. I would not find my passion and pursue my dream if I never met Burt.
He will be dearly missed.
Before I attended Carleton I grew up with stories from my mother of her travel in Asia with Burt as a fundraiser for Carleton. Her stories of the people he knew and the ease with which he could engage with a whole room full of people and make every single one feel as if he was speaking primarily to them made him a legend to me before I ever met him. When I had the opportunity to take classes from him I found those stories not to be remotely exaggerated. The majority of the stories I still tell about classes and professors I had involve Burt, Roy or the interaction between the two of them. It was truly an honor to have learned from Burt Levin.
They don't make men like Burt anymore. Gentleman. Scholar. Wise man, always funny and yet diplomatic. Burt took a sincere interest in students. He was engaging, fun and just like his partner in crime (Roy Grow), they each had a magical twinkle in their eye that reminded you how special you are and how much they care about you. I'm not making this up. Other people can attest. I'm not crazy. Burt gave helpful and inspiring, nudging comments on essays he returned. We lost a diplomat and scholar. There is a hole in my heart. Rest in Power, Ambassador Levin.
Burt sparked my imagination in his lectures and helped set me on my path as a public servant. I learned a lot from him about the practical, in-the-trenches work of diplomacy and international relations (and the proper way to make a martini). Almost 20 years later, I still make regular use of those lessons.
He will be missed, but his mark on Carleton and his influence on all the students that studied with him will persist for many, many years.
The world lost a great man and I lost a grandpa figure. I was blessed to have Burt as a friend and mentor. And I am a better person having known him. Thank you Uncle Burt. I will miss you forever.
I took two classes with Ambassador Levin. He was so generous with his time, stories, and experience. He was the most outstanding public servant I've ever met, with such empathy for the people of Southeast Asia. He was one of those folks who'd never met a stranger. The Vietnam seminar with him and Dr. Grow absolutely changed how I view the world. Where other classes focused on theory, their class was about experience, human nature, and first person accounts. Seeing their friendship on full display also gave me a vision of how cool it could be to be an adult. Thank you to Ambassador Levin and his family for their contributions to Carleton. His legacy will surely outlive us all.
Whether it was sitting in a class hearing the back and forth stiores of Burt and Roy or hanging with other PoliSci/IR Carls at his home awaiting election results, I will never forget Burt's wisdom, kindness, and humor. My favorite memory of all was when Burt came up to a rugby game and shared an after-game beverage and a few stories of his youth. You will be missed, Burt!
The energy in the room changed when Burt walked in. He was the life of any room he entered. He was warm and energetic and taught us with his wonderfully colorful opinionated language (such as his advice for preparing for a career in the foreign service, "read the New York Times and learn to drink"). There is a huge hole in the world with him gone. I wonder how many people he influenced....probably too many to count. I was intrigued by Burma, and wrote my comps on civil society in that country. As the Ambassador to Burma during the 1988 democracy uprising, he provided such an important tangible connection for me, willing to talk shop and lead my independent study when no one else on campus seemed to know what I was writing about (that's all changed these days). Later, he and Roy made it possible for 14 of us to work in China together - an experience that led to two marriages, several Asia-centered careers, and the closest friends I have. My life was profoundly impacted by his presence it in. Thank you Burt, for everything.
Although I graduated too early to have taken a class with Burt, when I returned to teach at Carleton in the early 2000s, he was a welcoming and genial presence in the political science department. In the halls of Willis and at departmental get-togethers, he was always a joy to talk with and learn from. He was one of a kind.
Several of us were so fortunate to go on an Alumni Adventure in China, April, 2000, that Burt helped organize. We were able to have many amazing experiences due to the connections Burt had. Of course, there were many interesting morning discussions to help us understand what we would be experiencing that day or to provide us with background for the trip in general. Lily also came on the trip and added her perspective. Twice we connected with Roy Grough and his students, in Beijing where they took us out to lunch in small groups, and on the boat trip on the Yangtze from Wuhan to Chongching. What a unique experience never to be forgotten. Burt was truly amazing and had a great impact on all of us on the tour.
I was fortunate enough during my time at Carleton to take a course taught by Roy and Burt, and it stands out to me as one of my favorite classes I took at Carleton (despite the fact that I was actually an Econ major). The sorts of insights and stories that these two would share with us really changed the way I looked at the world, and I feel like they made me more well rounded as a result. It really breaks my heart to know that future Carls won't get to experience either of these wonderful people during their time at the school. They leave a hole that will be very hard to fill.
My thoughts are with Burt's friends and family - thank you for sharing him with us.
I have very fond memories of my time in China with Burt and Lily in 2002. Burt and Lily were wonderful guides who opened my eyes to the awsome beauty of China and its people. I deeply appreciated Burt's willingness to share his deep knowledge of east Asia with me and my other travel colleagues. Thank you Burt.
Burt and I go back away, to the time his daughter, Ali '88, was one of my SOAN students. In 1989 Burt helped me fulfill a lifetime dream by securing a visa to visit Burma, where he then served as Ambassador. He was a superb host, and I remember telling him that the guestroom he provided me was bigger than my whole house in Northfield. He knew how to enjoy the perks of Foreign Service life at the top. He also arranged for me to visit with Aung San Suu Kyi, who was then campaigning in the first election in Burma to be held in many years. Her subsequent electoral victory was rewarded by the then military government (with which Burt was constantly at diplomatic odds) with house arrest for many years. I had known Suu in Nepal, which she and her husband, a British Bhutanologist, visited occasionally.
Back at Carleton, Burt and I enjoyed each other's company whenever he was in town, sometimes assisted by his legendary expertise at making martinis. I also enormously enjoyed the faculty trip Burt and Qi-Quang Zhau led to China in 2002, which was an unforgettable experience. There was no way Burt could get enough Chinese culture and cuisine to satisfy him - he was always hungry for more.
I also remember, in 2002, when we had lunch at LDC on a Fall day, just to catch up on things. I returned to my office where I found a mysterious email message from my sister in central Kentucky, expressing her sorrow about the Wellstones. I had no idea what she was talking about. Then I walked out into the hall, where I found stunned and bereft colleagues milling about. The sorrow I felt then I now feel for Burt. How fortunate Carleton was to have him in our midst as long as we did, and how lucky I was to count him as a friend. I will greatly miss him.
Jim Fisher