July 18, 1956 –
Jan. 17, 2012

Curt Noland, who grew up in La Crescenta and gained an early measure of fame for delivering a local newspaper on horseback, died Jan. 17 at his Carlsbad home after a six-week battle with esophageal cancer. He was 55.

Noland, who was born July 18, 1956 in Pasadena, spent the first 14 years of his life in La Crescenta, which was a semi-rural community in the days before the 210 Freeway was built. His parents, Al and Diane Noland, lived in La Crescenta for 20 years in the 1950s and ’60s and had a horse corral behind their home at the top of Ramsdell Avenue. When Curt got a paper route, he found that it was difficult pedaling his bike up the steep streets of the community, so he began delivering the newspaper on horseback. This led to his being featured on a segment of “Ralph Story’s Los Angeles” on KNXT-TV (now KCBS), as Story exulted in “the revival of the Pony Express in La Crescenta.”

Noland attended Valley View Elementary School and Clark Junior High School, and was active at La Crescenta Presbyterian Church and First Baptist Church of La Crescenta.

He moved with his family to Maryland in 1971 where he graduated from high school and then relocated to San Diego, where he attended college. In his career, he oversaw the creation of master-planned communities for a developer.

Noland is survived by his wife Marlena and sons Phil, Dan and Andrew, and father Al of La Mesa, brothers Bruce of Phoenix and Eric of La Crescenta, and sister Elyse Black of Escondido. A memorial service will be held on Feb. 4 at 10 a.m. at Daybreak Church in Carlsbad.