JAY A. NOBLE, JR., LTJG, USN

Jay Noble, Jr. '40

Date of birth: September 23, 1916

Date of death: August 16, 1942

Age: 25

Lucky Bag

From the 1940 Lucky Bag:

JAY ALVIN NOBLE, JR.

Lockport, New York

Jay

A former Cornellian. Jay carried on his work on college publications by giving us the 1940 "Reef Points," among other things. He tried crew, but ended up in the water at water polo, which was a hundred and eighty degrees out of phase with another of his activities, the orchestra. Jay is also an excellent photographer. His pictures show the results of contemplation and a lot of hard work. A quiet, unassuming personality, coupled with a sense of responsibility, ensure his success at whatever he undertakes. In a spare moment he can always be found reading a book — usually a deep one. Best of all, he makes a swell friend.

Water Polo W40P; Trident 3, 2, 1, Secretary 1; Reef Points 3, 2, 1, Editor-in-Chief 2, 1; Press Detail 4, 3; Orchestra; Foreign Language Club; M.P.O.

JAY ALVIN NOBLE, JR.

Lockport, New York

Jay

A former Cornellian. Jay carried on his work on college publications by giving us the 1940 "Reef Points," among other things. He tried crew, but ended up in the water at water polo, which was a hundred and eighty degrees out of phase with another of his activities, the orchestra. Jay is also an excellent photographer. His pictures show the results of contemplation and a lot of hard work. A quiet, unassuming personality, coupled with a sense of responsibility, ensure his success at whatever he undertakes. In a spare moment he can always be found reading a book — usually a deep one. Best of all, he makes a swell friend.

Water Polo W40P; Trident 3, 2, 1, Secretary 1; Reef Points 3, 2, 1, Editor-in-Chief 2, 1; Press Detail 4, 3; Orchestra; Foreign Language Club; M.P.O.

Loss

Jay was lost when the transport plane he was aboard crashed near Kodiak, Alaska, on August 16, 1942.

From a now-broken link, this undated passage:

Plane With 14 Missing in Alaska - A U.S. Navy plane with a crew of four and ten passengers enroute from Kodiak to Whitehorse, Alaska was reported overdue by the Navy Department, which notified next of kin of those aboard that the crew and passengers were missing. The flight was a routine one from Kodiak to Seattle, Wash. Three planes started on the trip and were forced to fly by instrument soon after taking off. Two made their way through the bad weather to Whitehorse. Naval aircraft have been making searches for the missing plane and other agencies were asked to assist in the search.
Those aboard the missing plane were Commander Joyce A. Ralph, USN; Lieut. Comdrs. Burton Lee Doggett, USN, Jerome H. Sparbo. USNR and Paul H. Tobelman, USN; Captain Arthur Barrows. USMC; Lieuts. Joseph A. Crook, USN and Thomas E. Johnson. Jr. (ChC), USN; Lieuts. (j.g.) Thomas G. Cherikos, USNR. Charles E. Deterding, USN and Jay A. Noble, Jr.. USN: Ensign Charles L. Mixon, USNR; Charles E. Barber. ACRM. USN; H. A. Scott, ACRM, USN, and C O. Walton, AMM2c. USN.

The aircraft was never located, and all 14 passengers and crew were declared dead a year and a day following their disappearance. The aircraft was a part of Transport Squadron (VR) 2.

Other Information

From researcher Kathy Franz:

Jay graduated from Lockport High School in 1934. At Cornell in 1936, he was a member of the Seal and Serpent, was on the editorial staff of the Cornell Engineer, and played violin in the University orchestra.
His father was superintendent of Lockport Light, mother Clara, sister Patricia.

He was survived by his parents and his fiancé; their engagement had been announced the weekend before he was killed.

Jay is remembered at the Courts of the Missing in Hawaii.

Photographs

From his high school yearbook
From the Lucky Bag

Navy Directories & Officer Registers

The "Register of Commissioned and Warrant Officers of the United States Navy and Marine Corps" was published annually from 1815 through at least the 1970s; it provided rank, command or station, and occasionally billet until the beginning of World War II when command/station was no longer included. Scanned copies were reviewed and data entered from the mid-1840s through 1922, when more-frequent Navy Directories were available.

The Navy Directory was a publication that provided information on the command, billet, and rank of every active and retired naval officer. Single editions have been found online from January 1915 and March 1918, and then from three to six editions per year from 1923 through 1940; the final edition is from April 1941.

The entries in both series of documents are sometimes cryptic and confusing. They are often inconsistent, even within an edition, with the name of commands; this is especially true for aviation squadrons in the 1920s and early 1930s.

Alumni listed at the same command may or may not have had significant interactions; they could have shared a stateroom or workspace, stood many hours of watch together… or, especially at the larger commands, they might not have known each other at all. The information provides the opportunity to draw connections that are otherwise invisible, though, and gives a fuller view of the professional experiences of these alumni in Memorial Hall.