It has been 18 years since Arwah Wan Mohd Noor left us for good. Recently, I was flipping through some old pictures and his images came strongly across my mind that I couldn't help but to write something about him.
Wan Mohd Nor was my roommate at #3, 727 E 800 N , Logan, Utah for about 9 months in 1986 before he graduated a quarter earlier than me. He was an engineering student in Utah State University and 2 years my senior by age but his graduation got delayed due to issues with his credits transfer from his former Canadian University.
He was known and remembered not because of his academic superiority, but he was the symbol of perseverance and "can do" attitude despite his hardship in college. In his final year in college, he had major financial difficulties because of the delay of his scholarship's allowance payment. This was due to his transfer from Canada University a year earlier and the delay was causing him hardship to sustain his expenses there. I remember him making repeated calls to the Malaysia Student Department's office in North America asking for early release of his scholarship money but it was drowned into the bureaucracy and red tape process.
Wan Mohd Nor or Wan Jus as he was fondly called, came from a poor family in Dungun, his father was bedridden and the mom was doing odd jobs cleaning other people's houses to support the family. He was the eldest son in the family then. I was even told by someone close to his family that he used his scholarship money to put electricity and running water to his family home in Dungun. That was in the early 80's.
Nothing much we could do to help him during his difficulty period except to share with him whatever little scholarship money that we had. He had no where to ask for help except the friends around him.. And it was not easy to get a part time job in Logan then because almost all available jobs in campus were grabbed by the local students.
Despite all his difficulties, Wan Jus never gave up and always joined us in all our activities. He would tag along with us where ever we go and we also enjoyed to have him as company. He would join us for skiing trip but opted to wait for us at the foothill, not wanting to burden us with the ski pass fee or he would join us to shopping mall but pretended nothing interests him instead of borrowing money to buy things for himself.
Sport was his passion and i would say that in theory, he knew all kind of sports, mainly as a commentator and "strategist". When i played in the local tennis tournament, he formed a strong side court supports among the Malaysians to cheer for me. One day, we decided to host sporting games event among malaysian students from the universities in Utah and other neighboring state, Idaho and he started hitting the library to find out the rules and regulation about tennis, volleyball and other related games to be hosted for the event. Come to think about it, he would make a superb sports administrator and regulator if he were to choose that career path,
With all his enthusiasm in sports, he was never a sportsman. He was a tall guy, about 6 foot in height but someone much shorter and smaller than him could outjumped him in a basketball game. I used to call him "Jus the Dunker" as a joke for his inability to use his height for his advantage in basketball games.
Another game that he loved to play was American football ( touch flag) game. We normally used him as a receiver but most of the time he would be outrun by the defender and the ball got intercepted in the air. Vice versa, when he was defending, the opposing receiver would have field days catching and running the ball right under his nose. For whatever shortcomings, he was a team player, never took offence on people mocking him on the field and best of all, he always tried his best.
After finishing his degree in Civil Engineering, he left Utah and came back to Malaysia during the height of Malaysia financial crisis in 1986. This definitely did not help him financially and emotionally. He failed to land decent job with his Engineering qualification and end up doing jobs under the pretext of graduate trainee program. He later signed up for the graduate Tax & Company Secretary Training Program and managed to open up tax and secretarial practice in Dungun Terengganu catering for SME industries there. It was not a profitable business but enough to pay his bills. He also started to diversify in promoting local artists paintings in order to earn extra money. One day he told us that he bought a used fishing boat and the joke around us was that "Wan Jus bought a Yatch !" Once again, he just smile at our unwarranted remarks.
He later got married and had 2 young boys ( if i am not mistaken) and never left Dungun to work somewhere elses. He led normal life until he started having bad coughs which lasted for a month. After frequent visits to Dungun Hospital, he was referred to Kuala Lumpur hospital for suspected Tuberculosis (TB). He was held at Pusat TB Negara in which he was diagnosed later as having Malign Heart Cancer, a shocking news for everyone of us. He was never a smoker and never being diagnosed for any cancer related disease before.
From Pusat TB Negara, he was transferred back to HKL to start his chemotherapy treatment. Less than a week in HKL and right after his first chemo treatment, he passed away quietly in the hospital. Even his wife was not prepared to join him in KL yet during his chemo treatment. She was to join him later and opted to be with the kids in Terengganu for the time being.
To back tracked, 3 days before his death, he slipped out of the hospital to join me for a teh tarik session in Kampung Baru. There was still a tube inserted into his wrist for drips preparation and it did not stop him from joining me. I remember giving him a book titled " What they don't teach you at Harvard" for his reading pleasure while in the hospital ward. Three days after that encounter we received the shocking news of his demise.. He was alone, not even his family or friends by his side when he passed away. He died at the age of 34 years old in 1996, relatively a very young age for a man to die for natural causes. But, Allah loves him more, Alfatihah to Brother Wan Mohd Nor Wan Jusoh.
Wan Mohd Nor was my roommate at #3, 727 E 800 N , Logan, Utah for about 9 months in 1986 before he graduated a quarter earlier than me. He was an engineering student in Utah State University and 2 years my senior by age but his graduation got delayed due to issues with his credits transfer from his former Canadian University.
 |
| Roommates at 727E 800N Logan,UT |
Wan Mohd Nor or Wan Jus as he was fondly called, came from a poor family in Dungun, his father was bedridden and the mom was doing odd jobs cleaning other people's houses to support the family. He was the eldest son in the family then. I was even told by someone close to his family that he used his scholarship money to put electricity and running water to his family home in Dungun. That was in the early 80's.
Nothing much we could do to help him during his difficulty period except to share with him whatever little scholarship money that we had. He had no where to ask for help except the friends around him.. And it was not easy to get a part time job in Logan then because almost all available jobs in campus were grabbed by the local students.
Despite all his difficulties, Wan Jus never gave up and always joined us in all our activities. He would tag along with us where ever we go and we also enjoyed to have him as company. He would join us for skiing trip but opted to wait for us at the foothill, not wanting to burden us with the ski pass fee or he would join us to shopping mall but pretended nothing interests him instead of borrowing money to buy things for himself.
 |
| week end outing - spring 1986 |
Sport was his passion and i would say that in theory, he knew all kind of sports, mainly as a commentator and "strategist". When i played in the local tennis tournament, he formed a strong side court supports among the Malaysians to cheer for me. One day, we decided to host sporting games event among malaysian students from the universities in Utah and other neighboring state, Idaho and he started hitting the library to find out the rules and regulation about tennis, volleyball and other related games to be hosted for the event. Come to think about it, he would make a superb sports administrator and regulator if he were to choose that career path,
 |
| Golf- Summer 1986 |
With all his enthusiasm in sports, he was never a sportsman. He was a tall guy, about 6 foot in height but someone much shorter and smaller than him could outjumped him in a basketball game. I used to call him "Jus the Dunker" as a joke for his inability to use his height for his advantage in basketball games.
 |
| Ice skating Dec 1985 |
Another game that he loved to play was American football ( touch flag) game. We normally used him as a receiver but most of the time he would be outrun by the defender and the ball got intercepted in the air. Vice versa, when he was defending, the opposing receiver would have field days catching and running the ball right under his nose. For whatever shortcomings, he was a team player, never took offence on people mocking him on the field and best of all, he always tried his best.
After finishing his degree in Civil Engineering, he left Utah and came back to Malaysia during the height of Malaysia financial crisis in 1986. This definitely did not help him financially and emotionally. He failed to land decent job with his Engineering qualification and end up doing jobs under the pretext of graduate trainee program. He later signed up for the graduate Tax & Company Secretary Training Program and managed to open up tax and secretarial practice in Dungun Terengganu catering for SME industries there. It was not a profitable business but enough to pay his bills. He also started to diversify in promoting local artists paintings in order to earn extra money. One day he told us that he bought a used fishing boat and the joke around us was that "Wan Jus bought a Yatch !" Once again, he just smile at our unwarranted remarks.
.jpg) |
| wooden boat |
He later got married and had 2 young boys ( if i am not mistaken) and never left Dungun to work somewhere elses. He led normal life until he started having bad coughs which lasted for a month. After frequent visits to Dungun Hospital, he was referred to Kuala Lumpur hospital for suspected Tuberculosis (TB). He was held at Pusat TB Negara in which he was diagnosed later as having Malign Heart Cancer, a shocking news for everyone of us. He was never a smoker and never being diagnosed for any cancer related disease before.
From Pusat TB Negara, he was transferred back to HKL to start his chemotherapy treatment. Less than a week in HKL and right after his first chemo treatment, he passed away quietly in the hospital. Even his wife was not prepared to join him in KL yet during his chemo treatment. She was to join him later and opted to be with the kids in Terengganu for the time being.
To back tracked, 3 days before his death, he slipped out of the hospital to join me for a teh tarik session in Kampung Baru. There was still a tube inserted into his wrist for drips preparation and it did not stop him from joining me. I remember giving him a book titled " What they don't teach you at Harvard" for his reading pleasure while in the hospital ward. Three days after that encounter we received the shocking news of his demise.. He was alone, not even his family or friends by his side when he passed away. He died at the age of 34 years old in 1996, relatively a very young age for a man to die for natural causes. But, Allah loves him more, Alfatihah to Brother Wan Mohd Nor Wan Jusoh.
