William Noble

William Schofield Noble: Unsung Hero of the Cambridge Tenant Movement By His Friends William Schofield Noble (Bill), well known as a tenant activist in Cambridge during the 1970s and 80s, died at the Bedford VA Hospital on February 7, 2018. He was 79. A founding member of the Cambridge Tenants Union (CTU) and its predecessor, The Cambridge Rent Control Coalition (CRCC), Bill served on the CTU steering committee and was also an active opponent of the expansion of Harvard, MIT, and other large Cambridge institutions into city neighborhoods. As long-time Cambridge activist Neil Rohr put it, Bill was strong on the side of the neighborhoods in challenging university expansion. According to Bill Cavellini, also a long-time Cambridge tenant activist, Bill was known for championing neighborhood priorities for Simplex on neighborhood ground. Bills colleagues say that he worked independently parallel to the Simplex Steering Committee, the movement that represented the resistance to MIT expansionism. Feisty and self-reliant, Bill fought shy of doctrines and dogma in his work. He was a brilliant person and wonderful | with his own strong sense of social justice, said long-time friend and activist Jeff Murray of Cambridgeport, adding, His friends, while admiring his work, were always impressed by his modesty. Bill, with his colleague on the CTU steering committee, Mike Turk, wrote the Full Occupancy Ordinance, which became part of the Rent Control Regulations. Bill wrote two zoning petitions, known as the Quinton petitions, for the Simplex land. And in 1984, Bill was prime drafter of one of the first two inclusionary zoning petitions, called the Noble petition because of his role as first drafter. Bill worked for years with his friend, the attorney John Mason, on a lawsuit and zoning battle for neighborhood property MIT attempted to take over, which included Bills home. In the words of Mike Turk, Bills principled stand was based upon his belief that this property, if developed according to MITs plans, would serve as a crucial stepping stone in the gentrification of the eastern part of Cambridge. The last two decades have borne out the validity of this belief. Bill refused to sell out. Bill was also engaged in other neighborhood activities. According to Jeff Murray, Bill closed the non-profit housing agency RCCC, a thankless and difficult task; he was the only one who could really do it | the mastermind. Bill managed to save the buildings and sell them to Just-a- Start. Bill Noble was born in Evanston and grew up in Glencoe on the North Shore of Chicago, where he was the oldest of three brothers. His father was a lawyer and his mother taught high school English literature. The law and English literature influenced his thinking throughout the rest of his life. At New Trier, where Bill graduated from high school, he was known as the encyclopedia. He was awarded a scholarship to Harvard, where he graduated with a BA in English literature, class of 1960. After college, Bill joined the military and the army recruited him into Intelligence. Bill was stationed in East and West Berlin during the Cold War. Upon his discharge from the service, Bill spent several years living and working in Paris as well as traveling throughout Europe. Returning to the US, he settled in Cambridge and supported himself with an eclectic series of jobs. He worked as a translator, particularly of French and German, as an accountant and co-manager of the Caf Pamplona with the owner Josefina Yanguas, and as a construction manager for the entrepreneur, Jack Hall. Later, Bill worked with Jack Hall at his software development firm, WorkTech. During Bills years living in Cambridge, he gave first priority to his tenant work. For years, Bill and Mike Turk, as CTU steering committee members, were responsible for advocating for tenants at weekly city council meetings. Theirs was a vigilant watchdog role, as they patiently attended and spoke out on behalf of tenants. Then city councilor David Sullivan thanked them years later for holding his feet to the fire. Bill was also a frequent contributor to the CTU newspaper, The Tenant Independent. In one of the concluding paragraphs of his letter to the CTU membership of January 11, 1993, Bill wrote, As the world lurches ahead and a lot of people have a vested interest in keeping us distracted from and disinformed about what is really going on, tenants, who, in the midst of it all, may not be the most happily placed of citizens, must rededicate themselves to making the City of Cambridge work for all its residents. How prescient are Bills words for the condition of our society today. Bills life companion, Connie Thibaut, said of Bill, In his work, Bill was a nonconformist person dedicated to the truth. He was personally fiercely loyal, and in his business and political dealings, he was the epitome of probity. He was misunderstood because he used his brilliant mind to question authority, and he was careless of the approval of those in power. Bill always put integrity before material success; he was unbribable. He leaves his life partner, Constantia Thibaut of Arlington, MA; his brother Henry of Winchester, Virginia; his brother Thomas and sister-in- law Elise; his niece and nephew Kate and Patrick; and his grand-nephew Zachary, all of Santa Fe, New Mexico. Memorial services are pending. Donations in Bills name may be made to: Bedford Research Corporation, Inc. (BRCI), c/o Dawn E. McKenna, Executive Director, Bedford VA, Building 14, Room 104, 200 Springs Road, Bedford MA 01730. For more information, please contact Dawn McKenna at (781) 687-2958.