Noel Calvin Taylor (15 July 1924–29 October 1999) was the mayor of Roanoke, Virginia from 1975 to 1992. He was widely considered one of the most influential leaders in the city's history.
Prior to becoming mayor, he was a leader in Roanoke's African American community and helped facilitate the city's peaceful desegregation in the late 1960s. A Republican, he was elected mayor in 1976, after having been appointed to complete the term of Roy L. Webber after his death in 1975. His lengthy tenure saw many changes in Roanoke such as the revitalization of the downtown city market area and the opening of Valley View Mall.
Taylor was pastor of High Street Baptist Church in the northwest section of Roanoke from 1961 until his death in 1999.
Roanoke's city hall, the Noel C. Taylor Municipal Building, and the Noel C. Taylor Learning Academy, a combined middle school and high school, were all named in his honor.
| Preceded by Roy L. Webber |
Roanoke, Virginia Mayor 1975-1992 |
Succeeded by David A. Bowers |
Famous quotes containing the words noel c, noel and/or taylor:
“You can make a sordid thing sound like a brilliant drawing-room comedy. Probably a fear we have of facing up to the real issues. Could you say we were guilty of Noel Cowardice?”
—Peter De Vries (b. 1910)
“I have a great mind to believe in Christianity for the mere pleasure of fancying I may be damned.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)
“Women have their heads in their hearts. Man seems to have been destined for a superior being; as things are, I think women generally better creatures than men. They have weaker appetites and weaker intellects but much stronger affections. A man with a bad heart has been sometimes saved by a strong head; but a corrupt woman is lost forever.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)