Gilbert H. Noble 1952-2025

He was born May 26, 1952, in Youngstown, the son of Gerry and Hugh Noble, who predeceased him.

He is survived by the world’s best sister, Carol, and several cousins. He also leaves behind the love of his life, Ms. Diddles Magee.

Having completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees work at Youngstown State University — with Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, being the home of his Ph.D. work in research design and robust statistics — Gib worked in the broad fields of education and research during his career. Public positions included professor of psychology and computer science in Missouri and then in Kansas; education technology curriculum specialist for a 23-district consortium in Iowa; director of technology and research at Blue Valley Schools in Overland Park, Kansas; assistant superintendent in Plano ISD in Plano, Texas; and deputy superintendent in Shoreline Schools (suburban Seattle). Gil was also a management and strategic planning consultant for many school districts and businesses across the U.S.

While first and foremost he saw himself as a “school marm,” Dr. Noble also received acclaim in many circles for his work in AI — most notably for his pioneering efforts in the then-nascent field of “expert systems.” He felt honored being a frequently requested presenter, speaker and workshop leader for such national organizations as the National School Boards Association. Gib was invited on multiple occasions to speak at regional and national conferences in New Orleans, Dallas, Las Vegas, Orlando, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

His public domain professional publications ranged from a satirical ode about counseling theories to a worldwide-used comprehensive test item and an analyses computer program which fostered discernment of “whether the test was truly testing what it was intended to test.” His 22 books and over 220 articles on developing expert systems for strategic and tactical use are not in the public domain.

(Gib would refer the reader to James 1:5.)

After consistently scoring in the 97-99 percentiles of standardized tests his first eight years of school, he quickly developed a strong sense of ennui during his freshman year of high school that he attributed to “the unchallenging structure” of school. After working through Erik Erikson’s stage of “role vs identity confusion” — aka “identity crisis” — Gil’s degrees, adult professional successes, accomplishments and awards surprised some of his high school teachers. Although he was always quick to point out the excellence offered by Messrs. “Squire” Hurrelbrink, Kochert, McConnell and Pallante — and Principal Valot — in helping shape his years at Austintown Fitch High School.

Gil’s health collapsed in March 2016 due to kidney failure. During his five-month stay in Mercy Hospital, he sometimes would joke that although he was well schooled, he apparently was not very bright: not suffering a cold, flu or other ailment for over five years, he felt no need to see a physician. Eventually ending up in a local ER, the attending told him he had kidney failure and that if his presenting BP of 190/130 had been there for a while, it likely caused his kidneys to finally give up. He thus would encourage all readers: Feeling good? Confirm it with a checkup!

After nearly two years on dialysis, administered by many caring professionals at Fresenius Kidney Center in Austintown, Gib received a life-changing kidney transplant at the Cleveland Clinic in January 2018.

Having spent his career in education, he wanted to continue “teaching” after his life here was over. By availing himself of their Body Donation Program of the Cleveland Clinic, he hopes medical students and researchers will learn something from him that will be helpful for others. He asked that readers be encouraged to consider organ / body donation upon death. As Gib said, “It’ll have been a great ride, but I’ll be done with everything.”

Although he was quite proud of the “big things” that brought him professional success, he was even more proud of the “small things” that gave him personal satisfaction. He hopes the reader will have such a life — one of consequence and satisfaction. He also wanted to remind the reader: (1) Always be ready to say goodbye — to anything; and, (2) It’s stunning how quickly forever comes.

Although Dr Noble was quite comfortable with entertaining ambiguity and nuance, he felt that to be willing to be smug and stop there was the shallow sandbox of the intellectual effete. He preferred the satisfaction of striving for certainty — knowing such was rarely obtainable.

Being a lifelong follower of the ancient Skeptic philosophy of Acatalepsy, Gil entered death knowing that only three things were beyond statistical probability and were absolute certainties: God exists, Christ Jesus is His Son, and Trump won in 2020.

Dr Noble had said of his eventual death, “As Queen sang, ‘Who wants to live forever?'” He would follow this with, “Indeed!, on to the next adventure in God’s plan.”

Once the Clinic has learned all they can from him, Gib’s remains will be cremated and returned for local internment.

No local services are foreseen.

“If youth knew; if age could” — Sigmund Freud

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