Insurance broker, local philanthropist, dies at 92
COLLINGWOOD -- Long-time businessman and philanthropist Howard Noble has died.
Mr. Noble died Tuesday after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 92.
Mr. Noble was born in Mulmur Township. His first job was in Ottawa during the Second World War, working for the Air Force as an aluminum welder. After the war he decided to get into the insurance business, so he joined Great West Life.
In 1945, Mr. Noble bought the Avening General Store, and ran the store for seven years with the help of his wife while he build the insurance business. Several projects which Mr. Noble was involved withduring that time included street lights and a community centre with a bowling alley.
n 1953, Mr. Noble sold his store in Avening and moved to the Village of Creemore to run his business. In 1967, his son Wayne Noble joined the business and an office was opened in Collingwood.
Mr. Noble joined the Masonic order in Ottawa in 1942 and then transferred to Creemore where he was Master in 1953. He joined the Shriners in 1972 in Barrie, and was a long time member of the Eastern Star along with his wife Vivian. He was Grand Patron of the Star in 1974/75.
In 2000, Mr. Noble made a $60,000 donation to assist in the effort to build the Station on the Green in Creemore.
He leaves his son, Wayne and his wife Hilda, granddaughter Anne Noble and her husband Andrew McKee and two great granddaughters Maggie and Abbey McKee. Mr. Noble's wife of 49 years, Vivian, died in 1993.
Visitation is at Carruthers and Davidson Funeral Home in Stayner on Friday from 2 until 4 p.m. and 7 until 9 p.m.; there will be an Eastern Star Service at 6:30 p.m. Funeral services will be held at St. John's United Church, 194 Mill Street, Creemore, on Saturday at 11 a.m. Reception to follow at Station on the Green, Creemore. Spring interment Creemore Union Cemetery.
Donations in lieu of flowers may be made to St. John's United Church, Creemore, Creemore Union Cemetery Perpetual Care Fund, or the Shriners Hospital for Children.
