was elected to the Hall of Fame of the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum in Odessa's sister city of Midland. In 1985, UT named Noël a distinguished alumnus. Civic endeavors Noël worked to establish the University of Texas of the Permian Basin, which opened in Odessa with barely a thousand students in 1973. In 1974, Noël and his wife, the former Ellen Witwer (March 21, 1914–May 1, 2008), with an initial outlay of $245,525, endowed the Ellen and Bill Noël Scholarship Fund at UTPB. Noël wanted to assist the children of his employees attending UTPB and to boost enrollment on the then fledgling campus. In an interview, Noël acknowledged that his opportunity to attend college had been essential to his own success: 'I've always felt like that was something that needed to be repaid." The Noëls endowed the position of the Ellen and Bill Noël Distinguished Professor for Energy Research, recently held by Dr. Mike Robinson. The couple also underwrote scholarships at the community college, Odessa College, and contributed to the establishment of the Globe Theatre of the Great Southwest, patterned after William Shakespeare's Globe Theater and located on the Odessa College campus. Bill and Ellen Noël had two daughters. Lissa N. Wagner of Midland and Sherwood Noel McGuigan of Durango, Colorado, and six grandchildren. The couple was Presbyterian. Noël died of cancer in Odessa at the age of seventy-two. His wife died in her Odessa home twenty years later. Ellen Witwer Noël On May 24, 1937, Noël married Ellen Witwer, a native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and a graduate of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, where she was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma. Early in her career, she taught school while the couple lived in McCamey, Texas. In time, she became a philanthropist in her own right. In 1993, Mrs. Noël contributed $1 million to establish the UTPB "Support for Excellence Fund," which is invested in the university's long-term account. A veteran supporter of the arts, she is the namesake of the Ellen Noël Art Museum of the Permian Basin, located adjacent to the Presidential Museum and Leadership Library. She co-sponsored the creation of the Noël Heritage Plaza in downtown Odessa. She was active in the Midland/Odessa Symphony & Chorale, the Permian Playhouse, the White-Pool House Museum, and the Parker Ranch House, Mrs. Noël also contributed funds for the Ellen and Bill Noël Therapy Center at High Sky Children's