Noel , a Brooklyn native who covered local and national news for WNBC-TV, reportedly died Thursday morning after a battle with brain cancer, station executives said.
He had been diagnosed with the illness two years ago but managed to continue to report the news and cover his Brooklyn beat while receiving treatments.
“Our WNBC family sends its thoughts and prayers to John’s family,” the station said in a statement. “He will be sincerely missed.”
Noel was formerly in the Air Force before becoming interested in television while he was deployed in Thailand where he was a radio programmer and announcer for the Armed Forces Radio and Television Network
When he returned to the US, he went to college on the GI Bill. Noel attended Brooklyn College, graduating summa cum laude, and went on to get a MA in Journalism from the University of Missouri.
He joined WNBC in 1998 after reporting stops in Detroit and St. Louis.
