(Presumably) inspired by my post on the Hepburn Libraries, my father-in-law sent me a link about another influential local — the man behind LifeSavers candy!

I decided to read more about Edward J. Noble on the Gouverneur Museum website. Here’s what I learned.

Edward John Noble (1882-1958) was born in Gouverneur, New York. In his youth his ambitions were to either attend West Point or own a newspaper. While he did neither, he did make his mark.

Noble started out earning money by picking berries and working as a farmhand. He attended Syracuse University and Yale, graduating in 1905. He was working at an advertising agency in 1912 when he offered to market candy maker Clarence Crane’s “perforated peppermint candy,” but instead ended up buying the business for $2,900 with his partner J. Roy Allen. Crane had invented the Pep-O-Mint LifeSavers after watching a druggist use a pill-making machine. He named them LifeSavers and billed them as “summer candy” because they withstood heat better than chocolate.

Noble and Allen set up the Mint Products Company, Inc. They replaced the cardboard packaging with tinfoil, which preserved the flavour of the candy. Noble recruited young people around the country to sell LifeSavers on commission and in twelve years the enterprise was worth $1.5M. In 1929 fruit flavours were introduced. The popular five-flavour packs (lemon, lime, orange, pineapple and cherry) appeared in 1935 and during World War II LifeSavers were included in military field rations. Noble was chairman of the board of LifeSavers from 1933 to 1955.

Besides growing the LifeSavers business, Edward Noble was appointed the first chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Authority by President Roosevelt in 1938. Five years later, he bought the Blue network from the National Broadcasting Company and enlarged it to form the American Broadcasting Company. He was on the advisory board of the St. Lawrence Seaway Project. He owned extensive properties in the Thousand Islands and was a speed boat racing enthusiast. He died on December 28, 1958 at his home in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Through the Edward John Noble foundation, he made possible three hospitals, which are named after him. Another tribute to him can be seen on the village green in Gouverneur– a giant LifeSaver roll taken from the LifeSavers Plant in Port Chester, New York, which operated from 1920 until 1985. It now stands in Edward J. Noble’s hometown.