Helen Nobel
The Jewish Encyclopedia
of Western Pennsylvania
A project of the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Heinz History Center
Fayette County native Max Nobel bought the Menallen Coke Company complex in Shoaf, Pa., from the H. C. Frick Company in 1958. He operated the facility until 1972, when newly enacted clean-air regulations made the beehive coke ovens obsolete.
His wife, Helen Gartner Nobel, was the daughter of a department store owner in Castle Shannon, Pa. She attended the Indiana State Teachers’ College and the University of Pittsburgh. She was one of the founding members of the South Hills section of the National Council of Jewish Women and was active in many South Hills organizations.
They had two children, Carol and Sanford.
