Austin: I think
I am dreaming
By ANGELA MARTIN-HINDS
GROWING up as a poor boy in the deprived area of Bottom Town,
St.Vincent, he never imagined he would one day become an ambassador. And now,
as the newly appointed American Ambassador to Trinidad andTobago, Dr Roy
Austin, says with blunt honesty in his clean, precise West Indian accent: “I
think I am in a dream. I never imagined I would be in this position.It’s a
position which was offered to him by his good friend, none other than the 43rd
President of the United States, George W Bush. Bush and Ambassador Austin
became solid friends when they met as students at Yale University many years
ago. The friendship was so solid that Bush was the man who was chosen by Austin
on December 16, 1967 to walk Glynis Sutherland of St Vincent down the aisle of
the Episcopal Chapel at Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut, and place
her hand in marriage into his friend’s palm.
But how did a poor boy from St Vincent get the opportunity to
attend an Ivy League college such as Yale University, become best friends with
the future President of the United States, and end up living the ultimate
American dream?
For Ambassador Roy Austin it was three factors–natural
intelligence, hard work, and a steely determination to overcome his
circumstances and succeed to a higher level.
Austin was born in Kingstown, St Vincent and the Grenadines, in
1939. He recalls: “Although I grew up relatively poor my parents had a shop
selling coconut drops, mauby, sugar cake and Tiri-Tiri fish cakes, I was always
bright and ambitious. I attended the St Vincent Grammar School and my parents
struggled to pay for me despite the fact that it was hard. I was not able to
afford the textbooks for chemistry and biology and I remember a Trinidadian
teacher not allowing me in the class because I did not have the books. Despite
those obstacles however, I still ended up coming first in test,” he adds with
pride. He also ended up graduating from school with a Higher School Certificate
and working for the government as a Customs Officer before returning to the
Grammar School to teach.
He was however not only an academic achiever, but also someone who
excelled at extra-curricular activities. “I was involved in practically
everything. In 1962 I was captain of the national soccer team. In 1963, I
actually played football against the Maple Team which visited St Vincent.” But
it was not just cricket and football. There was also swimming. “Swimming was a
natural pastime. I would simply walk across the street for a swim, it was my
bath to go to school, then wash the salt off under the standpipe.” He also got
involved in the carnival as a bandleader: “I remember bending wire with pliers.
There were times when we lost money as we charged a fee to hire a steelband to
accompany us to the track and around town. We did not get paid for assisting
people with costumes but did it because we enjoyed carnival.”
But despite it all, there was one factor uppermost in his mind:
the furthering of his studies. It was a visit by several students from Choate,
a rich prep school in the United States which the late John F Kennedy attended,
that took Austin out of his familiar environment and set him on his path to
greater glory.
Reflecting on that period of his life, he says: “It was customary
for these students to visit the islands and interact with Caribbean students,
teach us baseball, set up debates etc. I was interested in furthering my
studies and had applied and been accepted at McGill University in Canada but
could not afford the fees.
I learned from the Choate students that American Universities such
as Yale offered financial aid to Caribbean students. I applied, and after doing
a multiple test and essay was accepted. I think I was also chosen because Yale
was interested in well-rounded students who were also involved in
extra-curricular activities and I fit the bill.”
In 1964, happy and excited at the opportunity which had opened up
for him, he moved to the United States and entered Yale, living in Davenport
College, the same residential college,as George Bush. “I ended up switching my
majors biology and chemistry to sociology, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts
degree in sociology.” His intention was to return to St Vincent to teach, but
it would be 11 years before he took that journey home. Instead, he went through
a period of soul-searching and asked himself: “What am I going to do in St
Vincent with a sociology degree. I decided instead to further my education and
moved on to the University of Washington where I obtained a Master’s degree in
1970 and a Phd in 1973 both in sociology.”
Austin is a father of three, Roy Jr, who is an attorney, Roger, a
paralegal who recently graduated from Cornell University, and an adopted
daughter.
Before getting the call from President Bush to take up this
diplomatic posting, he was a faculty member of Pennsylvania State University
where he has been for the past 30 years, holding the position of Associate
Professor of Sociology, Justice and African Studies. From 1994 to 1998, he
served as Director of the Crime, Law and Justice Programme at Penn State and in
July 2001 became Director of the Africana Research Center. Among his
publications are some on the Caribbean, including Trinidad and Tobago, which he
visited on two occasions.
The man who left St Vincent at age 25 and who has retained his
West Indian accent is also a new member of the unique class of black
Republicans who are emerging on the US political scene.
But unlike his good friend President Bush, who has been a
Republican all his life, Austin only became a Republican a short time ago.