John Alexander Noble (1913–1983) was an artist known for creating drawings, paintings, and lithographs of ships and harbors around New York City.
While in school he was a "permanent fixture" on the McCarren line tugs, which towed schooners in New York Harbor.
In 1931, he graduated from Friends Seminary and returned to France, where he studied for a year at the University of Grenoble and met his wife, Susan Ames.
When he saw the Port Johnston Coal Docks on the Kill van Kull, which had become a "great boneyard" of wooden sailing vessels, the sight of it "affected him for life".
At a memorial service at the Snug Harbor Cultural Center three weeks later, 200 people, including Staten Island borough president Anthony Gaeta and Noble's two sons, spoke in remembrance.