Noble Power, of whom a past CIDA President once remarked “You meet his name before you meet the man,” died on October 16, 2002, in Barbados, West Indies, and was laid to rest at the Barbados Military Cemetery on October 21. He is lovingly remembered and deeply missed by his wife, Jan Bradshaw, and children, Christopher Noble, Susannah Morgan, and Alexandra Kay and their families and by his friends and colleagues around the world.
Born Noble Edward Charles Power in Montreal on September 17, 1931, the son of Richard Michael Hugh Power, M.D. and K.M. Phelan, he held degrees from the University of Montreal (B.A. 1953) and Columbia University in New York (M.I.A. 1955) and did graduate studies at the Universidad de Mexico and the Sorbonne. From 1950 to 1954, he served with the Second Battalion (Militia) Black of lieutenant. Watch (RHC) of Canada, attaining the rank
Noble began his career in diplomacy and international development as a United Nations intern in New York in 1955. He was on the staff of the Minister of National Defence in Ottawa from 1956 to 1962 and then joined the External Aid Office. In 1966, he was appointed Director of the Commonwealth Africa Program in the newly created Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).
After serving on temporary duty as the Canadian High Commissioner to Nigeria in 1970 and on the Interdepartmental Committee on External Relations (ICER) Task Force in 1970-71, Noble was named High Commissioner to Ghana and Ambassador to Togo and Benin. He returned from Africa to CIDA in 1974 as the Director-General of the Asia Program and was appointed Vice-President, Bilateral Programs, in 1977. In 1983, he was named High Commissioner to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean. From 1987 until his retirement in 1991, he was CIDA’s Vice- President of Multilateral Programs.
Over the course of a public service career spanning more than three and a half decades, Noble was engaged in a broad spectrum of international activities and several seminal events. He was a member of the initial small group of senior officials tasked with the organizational transition of Canada’s international development program from the External Aid Office to the Canadian International Development Agency. He served as a delegate to the Columbo Plan Conferences in Singapore (1974), Washington (1977), and Tokyo (1982) and as head of various Canadian delegations to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank and Arab/OPEC Conferences and was personally instrumental in securing pledges of Arab oil money to fund development assistance. He headed CIDA’s first aid mission to China and, as Head of Mission, experienced several coup attempts in Africa and the American intervention in Grenada, which occurred only a few short weeks after he had taken up his post in the Eastern Caribbean.
In his personal life, Noble was a very active participant in the Ottawa community. He was a Member of the Board of Directors of Elmwood School, President of the Ottawa Valley Hunt Club and a member of’ the Rideau Tennis and Rockcliffe Lawn Tennis Clubs.
Following Noble’s retirement from the Public Service of Canada, he and Jan settled permanently in St. Joseph, Barbados, at their unique and beautiful home, “Middle Earth’, spending the summer months in the United Kingdom, where Noble led seminars at Oxford. He served as a member of the board of directors of several Canadian and international corporations and was named a Senior Member of St. Anthony’s College at Oxford, a Fellow of the University of the West Indies, and Special Envoy for the CARICOM Region World Exposition 2005. He was also Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Codrington School and a Member of the Board of Trustees of The Future Centre Trust and the Council of the Royal Commonwealth Society.
He also continued his life-long love affair with tennis, playing daily. Sadly, his death immediately followed a brilliantly well-played match. Happily, he left us at the top of his game. The diplomatic tennis tournament in Barbados of which he was the founder has recently been renamed in his memory.
Noble is remembered by his colleagues first for his wit, style, and grace. He was an exceptionally articulate communicator in both English and French, and his irreverent humour always made him a delight to listen to, whether he was delivering a formal intervention at an Executive Committee meeting (during which he frequently switched back and forth between his “reading” glasses and his “speaking” glasses with great flourish), or sharing a slightly scandalous personal anecdote. Noble reminded us never to take ourselves too seriously. He loved to laugh, even at his own expense. When he took his CIDA management team on a retreat to his vacation house in the Laurentians, no one was more amused than he when his inability to find the way resulted in an unscheduled 40-minute tour of the region. One can only speculate as to why he was nicknamed “Doodles” within his family.
As a diplomat, Noble cast a long and lasting shadow. For many years following his posting in Accra, he was kindly remembered by Ghanaians for the development assistance he brought to their country at a very difficult time. He was also most certainly a presence at the grass roots level of Ghanaian society as evidenced by a mammy wagon named “Noble Power” which plied its trade in the streets of Accra long after Noble’s departure.
As a manager, Noble highly valued the opinions and insights of his subordinates. He was known for attracting and maintaining staff who were intelligent, astute, and ambitious and who dared to “push the envelope”. He took great pride in leading teams of individuals who were creative risk-takers prepared to challenge the conventional and venture into the untested in order to make the world a better place for others.
Noble not only revered humanity in the abstract but also took real pleasure in people. Whether officially or in his personal life, he loved to entertain and to be entertained. He was an elegant and generous host and a charming and engaging guest. It was never dull at Noble’s end of the table.
Noble made special efforts to maintain contact with the legions of individuals he had met around the globe over the years. A day on which one heard from him was always a sunnier day. We shall miss his cards, letters and visits, but take solace in having been a part of a life so positively and enthusiastically lived.
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 19, No. 4 (2003) — Winter/Spring 2002/2003 // Hiver/Printemps 2002/2003, pp. 39–40. Read the rest of this issue →
