Professor Carling Retires After Long Career
by Fiorella Granda
Issue date: 2/4/08 Section: News
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"When I first came to Lehman, one of the first things I noticed was that Robert Carling was always there, a continuous and kindly presence in the English Department," English Professor Patricia Cockram said. "In both his teaching and his advising, he has always been available to students and has gotten to know them in ways few of us ever do."
Professor Carling's journey began in the fall of 1968 when he became one of the first new professors after the Bronx campus of Hunter College became Lehman. Carling, 65, graduated from Brooklyn College in 1965. A week after graduation he went to India on a Fulbright English assistantship to teach English at MES (Maharashtra Education Society) College in the city of Poona, state of Maharashtra, India.
"My year in India as a young man-my first trip outside the United States-changed my view of the world permanently," Carling said. "It led to my involvement in international education in later years."
Over the next ten years he made summer trips to East Asia, Africa and Latin America. When he returned from India in September 1966, he was invited to teach courses at Brooklyn College to replace a senior professor who had fallen ill, and the experience changed the course of his life.
"I liked the experience so much that I decided to do my graduate work in English and remained a college teacher, rather than entering a program in international relations, as I had planned," Carling said.
He received his M.A. from New York University, then enrolled in the PhD English program at NYU, but did not complete it. "I was too involved in teaching and international education at the time, rather than scholarly research," he recalled.
As a lecturer in the English department at Lehman, Carling oversaw several programs. He spent 10 years as Director of English Composition (1975-1985), three years teaching literature and composition as a Foreign Expert at Suzhou University in China (1979-1980, 1982-1983, 1986-1987), and four years as Director of CUNY Lehman Hiroshima, a Lehman branch campus program in Japan (1990-1994).
"I was based on the home campus and traveled to Japan frequently," he said.
He also spent one year as Director of International Program Development (1994-1995), and one year as Coordinator of Lehman's Celebration of the United Nations Fiftieth Anniversary (1995-1996). Before retiring, he served as assistant to the Chair of the Department of English, and as English Advisor (1996-2006). When Foday Samateh, a 2007 graduate, came to Lehman from Gambia in the fall 2004, his transcript was not detailed enough to be able to find the equivalents of the courses he took in Africa.
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