Paid Notice: Jason T. Noble, who hailed from Bridgehampton and Sag Harbor, loved making music and mischief, poetry and paintings — and friends (“He knew every kid his age from Montauk to Westhampton,” said one of them). He loved skateboarding, the beach, parties and reading. He was rarely seen without his skateboard, notebook and pen, his guitar, his current book, and his smile, of course.
Jason died at his home in Brooklyn on November 24, of causes related to a spinal-cord injury sustained in 2000. He was 49.
Born in Philadelphia, Jason and his family moved frequently until settling on the East End in 1982. He attended Bridgehampton High School, where he enjoyed everything from English and history to photography and volleyball. During and after high school he interned at a NYC firm making commercials, for which he mastered complicated sound boards.
After high school, Jason enrolled at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, where he studied media and theater and, with fellow students, created a multimedia production that toured New England. He left college to drive across country with friends and took classes at The Evergreen State College in Washington.
The late ’90s found him hiking the deserts and mountains of Arizona and New Mexico and continuing his studies. One afternoon in Tucson, driving to a movie with two Sag Harbor friends, a truck speeding through a merge sign broadsided their car. Jason spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair.
He returned to Sag Harbor, where he taught robotics at an after-school program at Robotech in Amagansett, and met his future wife. Despite his wheelchair, Jason continued to swim in the ocean and bays, make paintings, poetry and music, and even enjoy kayaking and camping. A sweet soul, his poetry often reflected his questing nature and love of life and words. Also his sly sense of humor. He gave readings at Canio’s and local libraries. He showed his paintings at local galleries.
He never refrained from using his voice to right a wrong or help a stranger, according to his mother, “And he had a loud voice.”
He is survived by his wife, Abigail Hitchcock of New York City; his parents, Paddy and Phil Noble of Vinalhaven, ME; his brothers, Michael Coleman of New York City and Brian Noble of Portland, ME; his in-laws, Judith Long of Sag Harbor and Anthony Hitchcock and Jean Lindgren of Sagaponack; and many aunts, uncles, and 60 cousins.
A memorial celebration of Jason’s life will be held this summer in Sag Harbor.
“Good night sweet prince and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”
