Rev. Don Noble

The Rev. Don Sears Noble, 73, was born March 27, 1950, and completed his earthly life on Jan. 29, 2024. The son of Robert and Twyla Noble he was born in Topeka but spent his childhood and teen years in Tomah, Wisc., where he graduated from high school in 1968. After the death of his father, the family returned to Kansas where he enrolled at Fort Hays State University and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in special education.

While teaching, he discerned a call to ordained ministry in The United Methodist Church. Graduating from Saint Paul School of Theology, he was ordained deacon in 1981 and elder in 1985. In the legacy Kansas West Conference, he served Burchfield-Bluff City, Upland Yoked Parish, Scandia-Norway, Cunningham-Preston, Mitchell Chapel in Hutchinson and St. Luke’s and Dawson in Wichita. He led a Volunteers in Mission team to Alaska in 1996 and was on the team responding to tornadoes that struck Wichita in 1999.

Don married the Rev. Cindy Pellett-Noble in 1981 and became a father when Keely was born in 1983.

In 1989, he married the Rev. Kathy Kruger Noble. They moved to the legacy Tennessee Conference in 2001 where he served several churches before retiring in 2012. He was active at Christ UMC in Franklin, TN, where his love of music and outstanding voice led him to the choir and his compassion to the prison ministry. The couple moved to Haysville, KS, in 2022 to be near family.

Even in retirement and as his health worsened, he was a pastor to many who cared for him. If he knew you, he loved you.

Surviving him are wife Kathy; daughter Keely (Marion) Barnes and grandchildren, Nathaniel and Elise, Wichita; sister Janice (Tom) Carnahan, Sparks, NV; brother George (Debbie) Noble, Bartlesville, OK; and several nieces and nephews.

The memorial service will be Friday, Feb. 2, at 2 p.m. at Calvary United Methodist Church, 2525 N. Rock Road, Wichita, with visitation beginning at 1 p.m. Memorial contributions are suggested for United Methodist Open Door, Wichita; Calvary UMC, Wichita; or Christ UMC, Franklin, TN.