bout de papier, Vol. 26, No. 2 (2011) — Fall/Winter 2011 // Automne/Hiver 2011, pp. 21–22
A strong sense of a happy past and affectionate regard for his friends were among the most characteristic qualities of Jim Nutt.
He was born in Calgary and his roots were important to him. He retained a love of the West throughout his life, although his first memories were of his elementary school teacher in Hull, England, where his father had moved after the death of his mother and with whom he corresponded for many years. The high school in Calgary that he attended after the family’s return to Canada also made a lasting impression and he maintained contact with fellow students throughout his life.
With the outbreak of the Second World War Jim volunteered for the army, transferring to the RCAF shortly thereafter. During flight training at Trenton he met Grace Niddery, with whom he was to share over 60 years of happily married life. Another association of that time was with Freddie Sharp, one of his instructors at flight school (and later Chief of Defence Staff of the Canadian Forces), who remained a close life-long friend. Jim was discharged from the air force in 1945 with the rank of Flight/Lieutenant and went to Toronto University where he obtained his BA, followed by Osgoode Hall Law School.
The facts of his career with the Foreign Service are well known and one need here say no more than that when I first joined the Department of External Affairs in 1950 he was affectionately known as “the little dynamo” (there was a large one as well) and never, to my knowledge, belied his nickname. He made notable contributions in Defence-Liaison and his name is closely associated with the Law of the Sea; much of his time was devoted to Canada-USA relations and he had postings in Washington and as Consul-General in San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles. In Ottawa he served as Assistant Undersecretary with responsibility for administration.
This was an apt assignment that coincided with his interest in friends and colleagues and their welfare. This was by no means a merely professional matter but became an important motif in his life both before and after retirement. His first initiative, with Freddie Sharp, was the formation of a luncheon discussion group named “CHIMO”. (Jim acted as Chairman and delighted in repeating that this was no acronym but posed the question “Are you friendly?” in a South Pacific language; to which the same word gave an affirmative reply.) This was indeed a friendly group of retired senior officers from the Military and External Affairs who met very convivially for excellent briefings and discussions on current affairs. A second initiative, of deeper significance and for the realization of which Jim was solely responsible, was the formation of RHOMA — the Retired Heads of Mission Association. It is a thriving organization whose objectives are to provide a means of continuing contact between former heads of mission and, hopefully, preserve and make available their experience and wisdom acquired over many years. A third outlet for his energies and source of pleasure was his membership in the White Pine Fishing Club which he joined as a founding member when it was reconstituted in 1970 and of which he was legal adviser and historian. He was a keen fisherman in his early years but latterly his interests turned towards environmental protection and he was happy to row his grandchildren as they sought the largest trout rather than himself wield a rod.
Family was important to him and he took great pride in the annual exhibition put on by his daughter Carol and the gymnastics club at the Maryland high school where she taught. By the same token he was deeply involved with his son Ronnie and his grandchildren, by whom he was affectionately known as “Papa Jim”. He and Grace often travelled to England to maintain contact with relatives there and visit with my family. We travelled the length and breadth of the British Isles in my VW Beetle searching out the ruins of Niddery Castle in Scotland, his father’s old house in Barnstable, the Yorkshire Moors and Hebrides. No adventure daunted him and, while he did have his discontents (he worried about the world situation), he was fun to be with. He had a true gift for friendship and was himself the most loyal and reliable of friends, an invariable gentleman, than whom no one is more worthy of affection and respect. He is sorely missed.
Jim Langley was Canada’s Ambassador to Mexico, Brussels and the European Communities. He is a Senior Editorial Board Member of bout de papier.
NOW — AND THEN?
A sleigh-ride into eternity;
A blaze of consciousness;
A chance to savour “now”;
That is life, it seems.
No self-determined option;
We arrive or we do not.
Why you? Why me? God only knows!
We surely come by sheerest chance;
The odds against arrival astronomical.
Imagine the countless unborn,
Who miss life, just!
For them no consciousness, no “now”,
No sleigh-ride whatsoever,
Only unbroken eternity.
For us the born, the gift’s mortality,
Which insists that life be transitory;
What once was not, now is, will not be.
If that be truly so,
Will life have ever been
In the long eternal run?
Yet now we are, or seem to be.
For us the living, the riddle of life
Is what on Earth to do with it?
The pursuit of happiness” is prescribed;
Re-creation of a basic sort promotes
Continuity of our species; and,
To insert a purpose far less carnal,
Development of the soul is urged:
A chance to emulate God’s work —
to create
A miracle perhaps: immortal
consciousness;
Or at least a civilized congregation;
Whilst we wait upon this Earth
\nd so ensure we do not visit ruination,
Perhaps extinction, on the human race,
Our own unearthly — nay
earthly — alternative!
What counts in life are all the “nows”
And how one does indeed contribute
To a state of civilized homo sapiens.
But watch it! Lest you miss
All life’s fertile “nows”, but the last:
The end of the sleigh-ride;
The resumption of eternity — for you!
Unless, perhaps, the soul doth rise!
“Now”, outside worldliness,
Not outside wonderment.
The sleigh-ride of life, indeed
4 passport from “now” upon this Earth
To a state of everlasting grace.
Now and forever conjoined.
Begun in 1986
Completed August 1993
Jim Sutcliffe Nutt
Ottawa, Canada
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 26, No. 2 (2011) — Fall/Winter 2011 // Automne/Hiver 2011, pp. 21–22. Read the rest of this issue →
