Bobby Noble, a diabetic, gradually lost so much of his sight he became legally blind. Yet he managed to make a living and even excel in visual pursuits — as a photographer in New York, as a radiology assistant at Emory University Hospital and finally as a graphics designer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
His CDC supervisor, Angela Glaude-Hosch of Powder Springs, said, “As his last name indicates, Bobby was a noble guy with a determination to remain independent and to live beyond the challenges he faced.”
He went to work for the CDC in 2001 as a visual information specialist, first for the National Center of Injury Prevention and Control, then soon afterward for the CDC’s communications services division. In the latter job Noble produced graphics for a range of public health posters, fact sheets, PowerPoint presentations and illustrations for conferences.
“It was phenomenal that he could do these things despite his visual impairment,” Glaude-Hosch said. “In fact, he was one of the highest producers in our group. He did need to use special magnification equipment, but he never complained about any difficulties he encountered.”
The director of the division, Brad Myers of Atlanta, posed the following questions in a message to his staff this week:
“How do you explain someone who is legally blind but works as a visual information specialist? Who wears a cloth cycling cap even though he has not ridden a bicycle in years? The simple answer is that it must be someone who refuses to let physical limitations define who he is and what he can do.”
Robert Edward Noble, 55, died Tuesday at the Atlanta Medical Center of injuries sustained in a traffic accident. His family had a private service for him Saturday at Bridges Funeral Home in Athens, and he was buried at Oconee Hills Cemetery.
The accident took place Monday morning near his residence off Briarcliff Road as Noble was walking to a bus stop on his way to work. Witnesses told police that he apparently stepped into the path of an oncoming car. The driver was not charged.
Noble was born in Athens and went to Clarke Central High School and the University of Georgia, graduating from UGA with a degree in fine arts, majoring in photography.
Steven Noble said his brother Bobby was advised by doctors when he was a teenager that he might not live past age 25 because of his diabetes. However, advances in treatment managed to prolong his brother’s life, Steven Noble said. Just the same, he added, his brother was subject to other diabetes effects besides blindness, for instance dizzy spells, even diabetic shock.
After college he worked five years in New York as a commercial photographer and for a time as an assistant in the studio of renowned photographer Richard Avedon. He also enjoyed the company of other creative cameramen, painters and sculptors, his brother said. He returned to Georgia, though, as his sight deteriorated, and got a job with Emory University Hospital as a radiology assistant developing X-ray images.
About 15 years ago, Noble decided to re-invent himself, his brother said. He returned to Athens and lived with his parents while he taught himself computer programming and Web design, skills he applied in his position with the CDC.
Even after becoming legally blind, he continued to visit places like China and Iceland on his own and somehow take striking photos there. His brother said Noble was talking excitedly just a week ago about yet another trip he planned, to the wilds of Patagonia.
Surviving besides his brother Steven are his father and mother, Dr. Clyde Noble and Jan Noble; a sister, Susan Noble, and another brother, David Noble, all of Athens.
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