November 11, 2012
Twenty
years ago in Xuzhou I stayed overnight at the Nanjing Teachers University in
the Foreign Experts accommodations. In the common area we had a conversation
with an older gentleman, about 70 at the time, and got into the usual conversation
about past experiences. He had studied Philosophy, at Queen's, as I recall. Who
was your prof,`` we asked. Yup, his prof was none other than Tony Mardiros. And
I recalled, fondly, that Tony was the best teacher he`d ever had because his
questions and discussions were so thought provoking.
A week
ago a colleague of mine, a Physics teacher, and our school`s revered token PhD,
mentioned he was from Prince Rupert, among many other places he had lived,
taught, and worked. I thought he might have run into David, and asked if the
name Mardiros meant anything to him. Yes, he said, it was a name he thought of
often. There had been an esteemed philosophy prof at the University of Alberta
in whose home he had had the honour of visiting while he was heavily involved
in the Ban the Bomb campaign. Dr. Jim Johnson has been teaching here at the
Nanjing Foreign Languages School for about 5 years now, and remembers Tony very
fondly.
Jim
mentioned the time was the early '60's and recalled a little RCMP statuette Tony
had on the dining room table because he had just learned he was on their
"watch" list, and wanted to tell others of the regard some other
Canadians held him in. In fact, Tony noted, he was held in such esteem that
there was regularly an RCMP plant in his classrooms, not the green kind but the
very blue Tory kind.
Jim is a
delightful fellow. He has a very dry
quiet sense of humour, is very reflective, observant and cryptic. He reminds me of Eric. He wastes no words.
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