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- Denver Newspaper Agency, 10 Feb 2008
Rachel Bassetts Noel
January 15, 1918 – February 4, 2008
Mrs. Noel is said to be the first African American women elected to public office in Colorado. While serving in the 1960s as a member of the Denver Board of Education, she introduced the Noel Resolution, which helped end segregation in the Denver Public Schools. She was appointed to the University of Colorado Board of Regents in 1976, its first African American member, and became the first African American woman elected statewide in Colorado when she won a six-year term in 1978. Mrs. Noel was a leader of civic, educational, church and social organizations; a consultant for Denver’s Commission on Community Relations; a Metropolitan State College of Denver faculty member and the namesake of Rachel B. Noel Middle School and the Rachel B. Noel Distinguished visiting Professorship.
Mrs. Noel is survived by her son, Edmond F. “Buddy” Noel, Jr., and daughter, Angela Noel; her grandchildren, Stephen Noel, Peter Noel and wife Gillian, Rebecca Noel and their mother, Joni Noel, Halisi Noel-Johnson and Sloane Noel-Johnson and their father, Clarence Johnson; her great-grandchildren, Kiserian Noel and Nasir Noel; sisters-in-law, Julia Bassette, LaVonda Bassetts, Gladys Noel Bates, Lois Noel Braithwaithe, Frances Noel and Lynn Noel; nieces and nephews, Phoebe Haddon, James Haddon, Andrew Bassette IV, Patricia Woltz, Kathryn Gavin, Devi Noel Kamai, Deirdre Noel Lipscomb, Andrew Noel III, cousins. Leonard Perry, Roderick Perry, Robert Tarter and countless other loving relatives.
Memorial services for Mrs. Noel will be held on March 2, 2008, 3 p.m., at Shorter A.M.E. Church, 3100 Richard Allen Court, Denver, CO 80205. The family requests, in lieu of flowers, that contributions honoring Mrs. Noel and The Rachel B. Noel Distinguished Visiting Professorshiop be made to Metropolitan State College Foundation, Inc., and mailed to the Rachel B. Noel Distinguished Visiting Professorship PO Box 17971 Denver, CO 8021709812. Written remembrances may be sent to: anoel@maildiablo.com .
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Bassett Family Association Database
1918 - 2008 (90 years)