For four years Elmer John “Cy” Noble was a standout halfback on the UW’s football team under legendary undefeated coach Gilmour Dobie. His pigskin skills would come in handy when he was called to provide instruction in bayoneting and bomb throwing at Fort Lewis for army recruits. Commissioned as a Lieutenant at the first Officer’s Training School at the Presidio, Cy led the men of Company D of the 364th Infantry with the Wild West Division. Cy was killed in action on September 26, 1918, when he was struck by a cannon shell. Originally buried near the battlefield, he was later reinterred at Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery. (bit.ly/uw_noble)
Elmer’s heroism and bravery were recognized with a Distinguished Service Cross for gallantry when he “led his men under heavy fire in an attack through barbed-wire entanglements on the enemy positions before Bois-de-Cheppy. His conduct had a marked moral effect upon his men and he continued leading the attack until killed by enemy fire.” (Congressional Commendation.)
While at the UW, Cy majored in Commerce, was a member of Sigma Nu Fraternity, and the Oval Club and Fir Tree honor societies. In 1917 he married Doris Smith “the culmination of a college romance extending over his entire college days.” (The Delta of Sigma Nu Fraternity, vol. 36, pg. 711.) Born in Snohomish, Washington, Elmer was the youngest of John Noble and Sarah Hoskinson’s three children to survive infancy. Raised in Centralia, to Centralia High School’s Noble Field was named him. The first American Legion Post founded in Seattle in 1919, Post No. 1, was also named in Elmer Noble’s honor.
A poem dedicated to Howard appeared in the 1907 TYEE recalling his Harvard education:
Howard D. Hughes is a Hahva’d youth,
A polite young man he is, for sooth!
His luncheons he shares,
From soup to eclairs,
With Artless May Crahan – the gooth!