To Brian's family,

I worked with Brian many years ago at American Lifts (along with Marilyn) and have fond memories of Brian....he had the most clever come-backs of anyone I ever knew - always had me laughing.

My deepest condolences to your family.

Chris Deal

To the Nobbe Family:

You have our most sincere condolences.

PART 5: Right now, as I look out the screen door at a perfect, windless fall day, with oak leaves floating down into the yard, it seems like people like Brian are here on Earth mainly to enrich other lives in the time we have with them. Whether it's 54 years or 154 years, the time still would be too short. I’m going to really miss knowing that when I think of him and home he isn’t going to be there in body goofballing with his cool kids, hanging with his loving wife and his siblings, playing softball, having some beers with his friends or making some stranger’s day with a smile and some talk at a gas station or restaurant or wherever. I’ll carry on, open to those little things in life that will remind me of him and the solid base he and his family helped construct for me to go out into the world with confidence and self-assurance. May he rest in peace and may all of us who knew and loved Brian appreciate the time we have here just as he did every moment.

PART 4: Today, wherever I am, whenever I’m feeling anxious or nervous about something, when I can’t sleep because of something I need to do the next day, or most likely, when I’m taking something too seriously that shouldn't be taken seriously at all really, two of the places I send my mind to even out are the Nobbes’ yard and living room. I’ll inhale, smile and typically drift back to those places and times that I’m so thankful are and always will be part of my being.

I hadn’t talked to or seen Brian for, I don’t know, 15 or 20 years. That’s more time than I had with him growing up in Greensburg. I haven’t lived down the hill from the Nobbes for more than 32 years now. It’s really hard to fathom. It seems like yesterday that we were playing two-on-two baseball or trying and failing spectacularly to tackle Bob Nobbe during full-contact football games (tackling Bob was futile). It seems like yesterday that Brian was my chaperone on my first school bus ride in 1978.


PART 3: When we weren’t in school, Brian and his brothers taught us the intricacies of baseball, football and basketball. With Cobbler, my brother and I and anyone else we could wrangle, we played those three sports in conjunction with the seasons in the Nobbe yard and on the concrete slab basketball court between the summer kitchen, the house and the garage. We also engaged in non-sports action: cops and robbers on bikes, trick-or-treating, wintertime sledding and skiing on JCPenney equipment and “army”, which involved digging pits on the vacant lots near our house, forming 2-person “platoons” and heaving firecracker-laden mudballs and flaming Tonka trucks, Matchbox cars and tennis shoes at one another. We played in snow, rain, and summer heat and we played into the evening until our moms hollered at us to eat supper before the food got cold and was fed to the dogs (our and Nobbe’s dogs anyway; the Cobblers always had hunting dogs with proper papers and diets).


PART 2: For my brother and me, and neighborhood friend Chris Cobbler, our worlds of school and sports from the late ’70s through the early ’90s, went through the Nobbes. To catch the school bus, the neighborhood kids all gathered every weekday morning at Nobbes’ house, which doubled as the bus station. Millie would greet us with a smile. (None of us kids drank coffee then, but if we had, I’m sure she would have had a pot on for us every morning.) We’d wander into the house, make our way to the living room and mingle or flop onto the low-slung sofa. Probably, my brother and I would be nitpicking at each other about something idiotic and trivial and maybe throwing the occasional punch into each other’s kidneys or arms. The FM dial in the stereo cabinet would be tuned to Q-95. To this day, when I hear 38 Special’s Hold On Loosely, Rush’s Working Man, all things Johnny Cougar, Def Leppard’s Photograph and the rest of the same songs that Q-95 and the like still play on classic rock stations across the country, the first thing I feel is happiness, comfort and joy (The second thing I think is, “Aren’t there other songs by these bands that we could hear?” But, that’s just a personal lifelong beef.)



PART 1: Sometime after our parents’ house was built in 1978, when I was six years old, I met Brian. He and his mom, Millie, had walked down from their place to introduce themselves. The sun was shining, the weather was perfect, and I’m sure Millie laughed at something because when I remember that day, I always hear her warm laugh in my head. (Her laugh and Brian’s were always rich, true and sincere. They didn’t truck in wishy-washiness of any kind. When they laughed, they meant it.)

Between 1978 and 1990, when I graduated high school, I spent a lot of time with Brian and the entire Nobbe crew. All of that time and I don’t think I’m reconstructing history here—was quality time. I can’t imagine having had a happier childhood, thanks in large part to Brian, who was always one of the most consistently pleasant and friendliest people I’ve ever known, and the entire Nobbe crew. I’m always thankful that fate led our parents to build a house “down the hill” from Nobbes’ Route 421 place, where there was always a reused plastic gallon milk jug full of tea in the fridge, sports to be played, and, if you were really lucky, some just-baked yeast rolls.


Ushered with Brian at church.  He was always friendly and in a good mood.  He knew a lot of people and a lot of people knew Brian.  

I will always remember him as a great person.  He treated everyone the way he would want to be treated.

Thoughts and prayers to the entire family.

Matt, Suz, and Family

Playing baseball and football with Brian, his brothers, my brother and assorted neighbors and friends when we were kids were some of the best days of my life.  Rest in peace.

I knew Brian for many years and never saw him without a smile.  With a glance you knew he loved life as it is!  So obviously he had a lot of friends.  We all knew he would do anything for anyone because that makes the world a happy place.  Godspeed Brian.  Peace and prayers to all of his family and friends!  He's always there in our heads and our hearts.

Brian was a good friend from early on in my life, attending St Mary’s grade school together…all the way through high school. In the winter as kids, we had little plastic skis that was our introduction to a 15’ slope by his house. We played many games of football in the side lot, where Brian acquired the nickname “stony fingers” from the ball bouncing off his hands. 
I always enjoyed the sleepovers and the humor Brian’s older brothers would provide. The Nobbe’s are a great family!
It was nice to catch up a few weeks ago over the phone with Brian after way too many years of losing touch. Brian’s attitude both amazed and inspired me. May God grant him eternal peace. 

Jen, Travis, Alaina and Jenna,
Kathy and I will keep you in our thoughts and prayers. It was an honor and a privilege to call Brian one of my best friends. He was the most positive person and influence on so many.  There was never a day when he let the small things bother him. Rest In Peace brother. 
Hody

Thinking of Jennifer, Travis,  Alaina & Jenna-
You and your family are in my thoughts and prayers as the days and months go by in the loss of your husband and dad. My husband succumbed to glioblastoma brain cancer after a year and a half and passed away 7 years ago.  

I knew Brian since second grade at St. Mary’s..  He was always, and I mean always, a positive and humorous guy.  I can’t recall a time when he wasn’t.  The world needs more Brian Nobbes.  I will miss him and his restless spirit.  Rest in peace, good friend.

OBITUARY

Brian James Nobbe

27 September, 1968 – 21 October, 2022

Gilliland Howe Funeral Home

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