After years working around the world, Carleton’s very first arts PhD., June Pimm, has come back to Carleton to begin teaching again.
Pimm grew up in Ottawa but earned her undergraduate degree at McGill University before enrolling in the doctoral program in developmental psychology at Carleton.
“The program was very rigorous and challenging,” Pimm said, noting this was Carleton’s first doctoral program in arts and the university wanted to do it right.
Pimm was the only one to complete the degree in her class, earning Carleton’s first-ever PhD in arts.
Pimm’s accomplishments include the creation of the first -ver public school classroom for “emotionally disturbed” children in Ottawa schools and working with Piaget’s group in Geneva, Switzerland on a study comparing the moral development of American children versus that of Swiss children.
Pimm also lived in Miami, Florida for over 20 years where she worked with both the Juvenile Justice Department and with the University of Miami School of Medicine.
“I was never cut out to be just somebody’s boss. I wanted to actually do the work myself,” Pimm said.
Pimm attributes her success to not following any specific plan and seeing problems as opportunities.
“When I was at the medical school they’d bring me in every year to talk to the women who were doing their postdoctorate period . . . I was supposed to be an example of somebody who had combined a career and family with my profession,” she said.
“I couldn’t tell them anything, they were all extremely determined that they had to do their post-doc at this university and their next thing at another university and they all looked at me like I was crazy to say something will come along.”
Pimm was invited back to Carleton to introduce the Pickering Lectures, a series of lectures that cover a broad range of topics in developmental psychology.
Although she has taught at Carleton before, Pimm said she was grateful for the opportunity.
“I’m having a great time. There’s nothing like hearing your own voice and sharing your own so-called wisdom,” Pimm said with a laugh.
“It was a great opportunity to reconnect with Carleton. I was really surprised and very pleased that they still remembered me.”
As for her age, Pimm said she prefers not to discuss it.
“I’m very, very lucky in that I still appear to be compos mentis and also physically very capable of moving around and working long hours. When I think about retiring, I say, ‘Oh my goodness what would I do with myself?’”
Pimm pointed out that she comes from good genes. Her father died at age 102 and her stepsister at 104. She said as far as she’s concerned, she’s just getting started.
