Don O. Noel, Jr., board president of the ACLU from 1997-2010, died June 30. He was 93.
“He was someone who really led with principle and compassion,” said Executive Director David McGuire. “Don had a dedication to integrity, fairness and civil rights, and was a steady leader who really cared.”
Don brought a lifetime of familiarity with politics, journalism and civil rights to the position. “He would never back away from a controversy and didn’t need accolades,” said Teresa Younger, a former board member. “He understood the policy components of the legislation we were working on and had the ability to sit and listen intently and summarize accurately.”
“He had an ability to lead with humility,” said Gavan Meehan, who served on the board with Don, “by serving and nurturing the talents of other people and doing it with class and style.”
Don was a prominent, award-winning Hartford journalist for nearly 40 years, starting in 1958 as a beat reporter for the Hartford Times, the city’s afternoon paper. He rose to become the paper’s editor in 1970 then became a commentator on WFSB, the local television station in 1975. He was the Hartford Courant’s political op-ed columnist from 1985 until his retirement in 1997.
Tall, eloquent and erudite, sporting a flower in his lapel and a courteous, upbeat manner, Don was an ardent supporter of Hartford’s arts and events, and lived in Blue Hills a racially integrated neighborhood, for five decades.
He was born November 27, 1931, and grew up in New Jersey, where his father was an engineer. He started a neighborhood newspaper in 3rd grade and attributed his wide range of knowledge to the intense reading he did during a prolonged childhood illness. At Cornell, he met his future wife Elizabeth (Brad) Foulds, who introduced him to the Society of Friends, and during the Korean conflict he was a conscientious objector who did alternative service in Japan for two years. He and Brad, who had accompanied him, remained in Japan a third year, and they backpacked for nine months through Asia and Europe on their return to the States. After retiring, Don earned an MFA at Fairfield University and wrote a memoir and dozens of short stories, many of which were published in print and online.
Don lived at the Seabury Retirement Community in Bloomfield where he was president of the Residents Council. Facing increasing medical and mobility issues, Don chose to stop eating or drinking and informed his friends of his decision over social media a week before he died. Brad and a son, Kenneth, predeceased him, and he is survived by his daughter Emily and a grandson, TJ Noel-Sullivan.
