Randy Noble (left) enjoys the 2016 Ole Miss vs. Texas A&M football game with his son, Nathan; wife, Jeana; and daughter, Rachel. Submitted photo
OXFORD, Miss. – The Noble family name is an institution at the University of Mississippi. Nobles have walked the university’s historic halls, studied in its classrooms and strolled its tree-lined pathways for generations.
Among the grandparents, parents, sons, daughters and cousins who have attended Ole Miss is the late Randy Noble, of Greenville, a 1967 graduate of the UM College of Liberal Arts and a 1972 alumnus of the School of Law.
Now, a scholarship established by his family members will memorialize Randy Noble’s name at his alma mater.
“The Nobles’ gift truly honors Randy’s memory and highlights how much he loved his alma mater,” said Lee Cohen, dean of liberal arts. “We are extremely grateful for their generosity, which will most certainly make a difference in our students’ lives for years to come.”
The Randy Noble Scholarship Endowment will be available to full-time freshmen who are graduates of Washington School in Greenville with a minimum GPA of 3.0 and who have participated in at least one sport.
“Randy was an outstanding quarterback and kicker in high school and was a really good baseball player,” said Richard Noble, of Indianola, Randy Noble’s cousin. The two were in college together and joined the same fraternity, Kappa Alpha.
“He could’ve played college ball but didn’t want to. He was an outstanding student, and we took care of each other as students at Ole Miss. He was just a great guy – more like a brother than a cousin. We were all such a close family.”
In addition to many other cousins, nephews and nieces, Randy Noble’s sisters Rose Marie Noble Turner, of Belzoni, and Jo Ann Noble Blair, of Laurel, earned degrees from Ole Miss in 1960 and 1962 respectively.
His father, Randolph Noble, also attended Ole Miss, and “Randy was proud of the fact that he had two children who graduated from Ole Miss with master’s degrees and whose involvement at Ole Miss strengthened his love for family and the university,” said Jeana Noble, Randy Noble’s wife.
Randy Noble (left) and cousin Richard Noble met for lunch in Oxford every Friday during football season. Submitted photo
Daughter Rachel, a four-year diamond girl for the baseball Rebels, received a bachelor’s degree in education from Ole Miss in 2013 and a master’s degree in 2015; son Nathan, a four-year letter winner in football, earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 2015 and a master’s in 2017.
“When Nathan played football at Ole Miss, we had a little tradition of meeting for lunch every Friday during football season,” Richard Noble said. “Even though we only lived 25 miles apart, watching his children at Ole Miss brought us even closer together.”
Randy Noble was born in Vicksburg but grew up in Lorman. At Ole Miss, he joined the Army ROTC and, after graduating, served two years in the U.S. Army at Fort Gordon, Georgia, before returning to law school, where he was a member of Moot Court and Phi Delta Phi legal fraternity.
After receiving his Juris Doctor, he moved to Greenville and established the law firm of Noble and Rounsavall, where he practiced as a partner until 2017. He was a member of the Mississippi Bar and the Washington County Bar associations.
Noble was active in the First United Methodist Church in Greenville, where he served as legal counsel on the administrative board and as a member of its Outreach Sunday School class.
Regarding the scholarship established in his cousin’s name, Richard Noble says, “Randy would be humbled by it. He wouldn’t stick his chest out. He wasn’t that type of guy. He was caring, just as tenderhearted as can be, just a great guy.
“He would probably say, ‘Can you spend your money better somewhere else?’ and I would say, ‘Absolutely not!’ We want people to contribute to the endowment and make it bigger and better for the students it will benefit.”
Individuals and organizations can make gifts to the Randy Noble Scholarship Endowment by mailing a check with the designation noted in the memo line to the University of Mississippi Foundation, 406 University Ave., Oxford, MS 38655; visiting http://www.umfoundation.com/makeagift or contacting Sandra Guest at 662-915-5208 or sguest@olemiss.edu.