Deceased January 13, 2017
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In Memory
Born in postwar Burma (now Myanmar), John Aung-Thwin came to Amherst in 1966 as a junior, following high school at the Kodaikanal International School in India and two years of community college in Massachusetts. Amherst was one stepping-stone in a life of constant personal growth and public service.
John studied political science and spent summer 1967 in West Point, Miss., tutoring Black students who were about to enter desegregated schools. A highlight of that summer for him was meeting Fannie Lou Hamer. That June he married Evelyn Macdonald, whom he had met in eighth grade. They were married for just five months shy of 50 years.
After Amherst, John studied international relations at McGill University. In his thesis about Burma’s postwar negotiations with China, he contended that Burma did not feel threatened by the Chinese. Professors wanted him to reverse his view, but he stuck with it.
John taught at a Mohawk Indian Way School near Montreal, ran an assisted-living program for adults with intellectual disabilities and eventually ran the two largest services in Quebec for mentally disabled adults. Meanwhile, he and Evelyn bought a farm, raising three children there and later in a cottage he renovated near the Ottawa River. They raised goats, horses, chickens and pond trout. John developed skills in meat brining, salting, marinating, smoking and cooking, welcoming many visitors to share dinners and wine. In retirement, he began writing a historical novel of Burma during World War II.
John died of kidney disease on Jan. 13, 2017, under what Canada’s earliest inhabitants called the Full Wolf Moon. He is survived by his wife, sons Chris and Mila, daughter Kira and four grandchildren.
Shall we go gently into our last years,
Or will some of our generation rise up and do something for future generations?
Evelyn Macdonald Aung-Thwin