39 years ago, Dr. Noumoff began teaching in the Department of Political Science at McGill University, now it is the time he will be retiring. As a world well-known scholar on the issues of China's Studies, Dr. Noumoff has developed a wide deep friendship with both Chinese leaders and ordinary Chinese people. He has been to China many times and has done a lot of things which has benefited bilateral relations between Canada and China in the past decades. He has been regarded as a "people ambassador" of Canada-China friendship.
As soon as he received his Doctorate Degree in Political Science from New York University, he came to New Brunswick Canada and after one year there, together with Dr. Lin Da-Guang, a world famous Chinese Canadian scholar at McGill, co-created the Center for East Asian Studies of McGill University. Dr. Noumoff served also as the director of the Center of Developing Areas of McGill University, the director of Undergraduate Studies of the Political Science Department, senior Senator of Senate of McGill University and a member of the Board of Governance of McGill University. He served on the faculty of both the Department of Political Science and the Department of East Asian Studies. As a specialist among a very few scholars in western countries on the Studies of Communist parties, he became the old friend of several developing countries such as North Korea, Cuba, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and China.
He loves China. As the member of first Canada-China Friendship Delegation, he visited China in the early1970s including his first trip to Yan'an - the symbol of the Chinese Revolution. Later, he visited China almost each year and had a number of meetings with Chinese leaders. For example, he was invited as the guest to have a personal visit to the home of Fei Xiaotong, one Chinese national leader who was President of the Democratic League and the father of modern Anthropology. In the early1980s, Dr. Noumoff invited a delegation of economic &trade officials of the Chinese government to Canada as a business visit after the delegation finished its official visit in the USA. He made a series of arrangements for the delegation to visit Canadian enterprises and hold meetings with Canadian entrepreneurs. This was a welcome opportunity for Chinese officials to learn something from western countries while China was at the early stage of the Economic Reform and Opening to the Outside World. The leader of the delegation became the Prime Minister of China in the late 1990s and has been esteemed as China's leading economic reformer. Dr. Noumoff met the leader several times later both in China and in Canada when the Prime Minister paid a national official visit to Canada. Dr. Noumoff always brought to the attention the results of his research, to Chinese leaders when he had any chance to meet them as long as he thought the information could benefit China. He also took those opportunities to recommend his students or visiting scholars to Chinese leaders so that these Chinese students could have more opportunities in China after they finished their studies and returned home.
Beside being the friend of leaders, Dr. Noumoff is the excellent teacher and friend of ordinary Chinese people. Many Chinese students were benefited from his warm-hearted aid. I clearly remembered the day when I came to Montreal as an international student. It was a very cold snowy day in Montreal. My plane was delayed for hours and arrived at the airport late at night. Dr. Noumoff had been waiting for me for several hours. He picked me up like a friend while he was such a famous scholar. I was quite moved by his warm heart that he already found an apartment for me and took me thereby himself and arranged for his other students to help me handle some practical issues such as registration, campus visiting, international student affairs, medical cards, etc. He always loved to help Chinese students. I accompanied him to the airport a couple of times to pick up other Chinese students in the later years. He and his wife always invited Chinese students to visit their home and have dinner with them. He encouraged his students to go back to China and serve their own country. For example, one visiting scholar became an official in the central government after he finished his study at McGill and went back to China. Through this student, Dr. Noumoff became the consultant of a few provincial and municipal governments, which these governments outsourced from Dr. Noumoff and imported foreign investment and commercial technology.
He also did his best to provide helps for Chinese students who wanted to stay in Canada. For example, I received a job interview when I finished my library degree. I forwarded my preparations for a site interview to Dr. Noumoff and hoped he could give me some advice. I was surprised when I got his feedbacks so fast. In his email, he corrected all my spelling errors and added a lot tips for me. His encouragement increased my confidence. This help contributed to my success in finding a professional job as soon as I finished my studies.
Dr. Noumoff has always been full of righteousness and morality. He brought back the CDs from China and showed the students in his class about the historical facts of Chinese victims of Nanjing who were killed during the Second World War by Japanese soldiers when Japan invaded China. He also led the fight resulting in the University refusing a million dollar donation from a Japanese war criminal. He was happy with the achievements of Chinese economic reform, however, at the same time, he was caring about the living conditions of Chinese ordinary people, especially workers and farmers. At the early years of Chinese Reform and Opening to the Outside, he was the only foreigner who had the possibility to teach a class for party and government leaders in the four levels of central, provincial, and municipal and county party schools. At his office, Lu Xun' s portrait hung on the wall. You can easily find all collections written both in English and in Chinese by Chairman Mao and Deng Xiaoping. He is a real knowledgeable great scholar in Chinese studies. It is no any extraordinary if we call him the "people ambassador".
Everyone might have some precious memories for something in his whole life. For me, I was lucky to have such a wonderful opportunity to complete my MA degree under the mentorship of such a knowledgeable great scholar at McGill University. It was the most important and wonderful period of my whole life.
麦吉尔大学政治系教授努莫夫博士在执教39年后即将退休。作为世界知名的中国问题专家，努莫夫博士和许多中国领导人及普通老百姓结下了深厚友谊，他数十次访问过中国，为加中友好奔波，堪称加中友好的使者。
努莫夫博士在获得纽约大学政治学博士学位后，和国际著名华裔学者林达光先生一起作为共同创建人创立了麦吉尔大学东亚研究中心，林达光先生出任首任主任，努莫夫博士出任付主任。后来林达光先生退休后，努莫夫博士又出任过该中心主任，努莫夫博士还出任过麦吉尔大学发展地区研究中心主任，政治系负责本科教育的主任，麦吉尔大学资深评议员，学校管理委员会成员等职务。他是政治系教授，东亚系兼职教授。作为西方社会研究的专家学者，努莫夫博士也是很多国家领导人的朋友，他去过北韩，是卡斯特罗的老朋友，在泰柬边境会过乔森潘。
但他更热爱中国，作为加中建交的积极参与者之一，作为当时的加国政府对华顾问，他是第一个加中友好代表团的成员，并在七十年代初期访问了延安。他到费孝通家作过客，见过很多老一辈的中国领导人。八十年代初期，努莫夫博士作为主邀请人，邀请了当时到美国访问的一个中国经贸代表团顺道访问加拿大，并安排代表团参观加拿大的企业，和加拿大企业家座谈，这对当时处于改革开放初期的中国官员是一次难得的学习机会。代表团的团长后来成为党和国家重要领导人，他成功地进行了中国经济改革，被外界誉为中国的“经济沙皇”。努莫夫博士后来多次在中国和加拿大见过这位领导人。只要是对中国有益，努莫夫博士都会把他研究的最新成果，或什么建议，或美加企业的投资意向书等推荐给中国领导人。他还利用这个机会向领导人推荐在加国学习的留学生访问学者等，为他们学成回国创造更有利的条件。
除了是领导人的朋友，努莫夫博士更是普通中国人的良师益友。很多中国学生得益于努莫夫博士的帮助。我是99年初来加拿大留学的，到达机场的那天是加拿大有史以来少见的大雪天气，我的飞机误了点，但努莫夫博士在机场等了我好几个小时，没有一点大学者的架子。特别令我感动的是他已帮我找好了公寓，并委托了好几位他的学生帮我办理入学注册等事宜。这样的事很多，仅我后来就陪他去机场接过好几位中国同学。他和他夫人还常常邀请中国学生去他家作客。他总是鼓励中国学生学成回国报效自己的祖国。有位访问学者回国后在国家机关工作，经这位访问学者牵线，努莫夫博士成了好几个中国省市和地区的顾问，这些地区也充分利用了努莫夫博士的资源，为这些地区招商引资。
对留下来的学生他也尽最大可能地提供帮助。我记得刚毕业时我得到了美国一所大学的工作面试机会，在我应试前我把我所想到的面试问题写成了书面答案发给了努莫夫博士，让他有空帮我看一看。没想到努莫夫博士很快就回了邮件，他不仅给我改了错字和用法不当的词汇，还给我列出了其他可能出现的问题，最主要的是他给了我很多贴士和鼓励，使我增加了自信心。每次我请他做我的工作证明人他都立刻答复我。后来我在一毕业就得到了一份专业工作，很大程度上要得益于努莫夫博士的帮助。
努莫夫博士充满了正义感，他在南京访问了被侵华日军大屠杀遇难者纪念馆后，把带回的光盘多次在课堂上向加国学生播放，让年轻一代了解史实真相。在他任东亚中心主任期间，他拒绝了一位曾是日本军国主义者的数百万美元的捐款。他为中国改革开放的成果欢欣鼓舞，但他更关心中国的工人和农民的生活。在中国的改革开放初期，他曾在中国中央党校和地方党校讲过学。在他的办公室，挂的一幅是鲁迅的画像。你可以在他的书架上找到毛泽东全集和邓小平全集。这是一位真正的中国通，是一位名副其实的民间大使。
人的一生有很多值得记忆的东西。但对于我来说，能有幸在这样一位博学而慈祥的老人指导下在麦吉尔大学完成文学硕士学位是我一生中最最难忘的一件人生大事。