Noal R Hess, age 92, passed away December 10, 2014. Born March 29, 1922, in Salt Lake City, UT to Jedediah Morgan Hess, Jr. and Bada Susanna Johnson Hess. Married Lois Gibson in the Salt Lake Temple on June 16, 1945. Active in the LDS Church, missionary to the Central States Mission. He worked for IBM for 30 years. He loved airplanes. A pilot and hobbyist, he built his own biplane and many º scale model airplanes.
Noal grew up in Salt Lake City in the Sugarhouse area on Hollywood Ave. When he came home from his mission he married his childhood sweetheart Lois Gibson. She lived near him growing up, and he talked about how he used to pull her hair in grade school to show her he liked her. They had three children Allen, Marilyn, and David. He was always active in the LDS Church serving in many capacities as scoutmaster and serving another mission with Lois serving in the Salt Lake Temple cafeteria. He also loved playing the violin, going to the symphony, camping and playing with grandkids. He always had a balsa wood glider on hand for any aspiring young aviator.
He was a gifted "fix it" man that had a talent to fix or repair most anything, which he gladly shared with friends and neighbors, repairing anything that got broken for a handshake. He worked at Hill Field during WW ll with his brother Lorin repairing aircraft instruments; he did radio repair work, and weather-stripping before landing a job with IBM. He worked there for many years as a Customer Service Engineer repairing early computers.
He was obsessed with flight since he was a child and he especially loved the barnstorming bi-plane era. He was an active sport pilot and enjoyed flying light planes from his flying club to the more distant IBM customers. He built model airplanes almost from the cradle, out of wood or anything else he could find. He went on to scratch build º scale airplanes of every kind; he would start a project by taking pictures or gathering photos of his subject, drawing his own plans and engineering every intricate part of the real airplane. His skill as a model builder was a national treasure as he won multiple contests and appeared in magazines throughout his life. He was a founder of the Utah State Aeromodelers and later, when radio control became a reality, joined the UTES R/C Club and Northern Utah Radio Control Aircraft Club of Ogden. He and Lois enjoyed many years of friendship with "airplane people", travelling to and camping at many "Fly-Ins" around the west. He was active in the Experimental Aircraft Association. He built his own home-built bi-plane to fulfill his child-hood vision of flying.
He is survived by his children Allen, Lawndale, CA, Marilyn and Ron Olsen, Moab, UT, David and Natalie Hess, Draper, UT, 9 grandchildren and 24 great grandchildren. Preceded in death by Lois Gibson Hess.
Services will be held Monday, December 15, 2014 at 11:00 am at the Hillside Stake Center 1400 south 1900 East, Salt Lake City, UT. Friends and family may visit 9:30 to 10:45 am.
Interment at Wasatch Lawn Cemetery
