HISTORY OF COMPANY

It all began in the summer of 1949, when Mr. Robert Noble struck a business agreement with landowner Mr. Roy D. Kokx. The agreement centered on the property located at the intersection of Lincoln and Batavia near the City of Orange. Out of this agreement sprung an asphalt paving and engineering company that has endured and prospered for more than 65 years.

The company started with a bare minimum area of land, approximately twenty-five acres. Robert Noble owned and operated the company with twenty-five employees.

Bert Noble, Robert’s father, developed and designed the asphalt plant and served as vice president from 1950-1954.  Paul D. McMahon was partner of R.J. Noble and served as vice president from 1954-1959. The company rapidly grew during the first six years and acquired an additional fifty acres from Roy Kokx. When Robert Noble passed away, Paul Cleary, Sr., served as vice president from 1959-1965, taking over the company and the land, based upon an agreement survivor takes all. In the mid-1960s Paul Cleary, Sr., became the owner and president of R. J. Noble Company. The Cleary family, lead by Paul, Sr. and his two sons, operated the company for more than twenty-eight years.

The business was family oriented from its inception. The original employees consisted of Robert Noble and two brothers and their son, a cousin and nephew (the Schildts and the Wrights). Jack Oder, Bob Noble’s brother-in-law, did the accounting and book keeping for the company. In 1965 Neil Evans joined the company as vice president and held that position until he retired in 1992.

Throughout the history of the company there has been one employee that is known as “The Noble Company Man” –Jim Stice. Jim began his employment at R. J. Noble Company as a laborer in 1953 .  Showing great work ethic and promise, Robert Noble asked Jim if wanted to “learn the business” to which Jim answered a very adamant “Yes”.  After that Noble sent Stice to night school in Santa Ana for a formal education and put Jim helped him to Operating Engineers Union.  Stice learned the business from the ground up, spending time learning the aggregate quarry mining and crushing operations, asphalt plant production and maintenance, eventually being put in charge of all facility operations. Throughout Jim’s 47 years of employment he continually moved up the ladder settling into the position of General Superintendent of both the Orange and Corona facilities.  He also helped kick off the Companies recycling operations which have grown through the years to recycle over 700,000 tons of construction debris annually.

Original land owner Roy D. Kokx’ son-in-law, William T. Carver, was hired in 1956 and also learned the business from the ground up. His son, Michael J. Carver, started in 1977 as a yard laborer, pulling weeds and helping with up keep of the Orange facility while attending night school, eventually graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a BS in business management. Mike moved up in the company becoming the top estimator and project manager. In 1998, Mike was promoted to Vice-President of all operations. Mike acquired the company from Paul Cleary, Jr. in 1999, becoming the 3^rd owner of the R.J. Noble Company and re-acquiring the land originally owned by his grandfather.

The R. J. Noble Company is now owned and operated by Michael J. Carver and his lovely wife Brenda.  The R.J. Noble Company Orange facility is its main base of operation and still resides on the original 25 acres of land that his grandfather owed 65 years ago.  Through the years there has been over 25 employees with family ties and as many as 4 generations of family members employed at R.J. Noble.  The Schildt, Wright, Cleary, Carver, Stice, Kirby, McCowen, Mendoza, Rodriguez, McGhehey, Hilton, Porter and Carroll families are just a few and many of these families still have members employed at R.J. Noble.  Michael J. Carver has continued the operation with good family values as the most important goal of the company operations.

Upgraded our onsite crushing operation.  Producing up to 150 tons per hour of Recycled Materials.

Retrofitted our 4-ton batch plant with 2-200 ton silos with a state of the art Astec Double Barrel Green Drum Plant with 3-200 ton & 3-300-ton silos.  Becoming one of the only dual drum and batch plants in the U.S. The upgrade to a drum plant doubled our hourly production rate and started a new era at the R.J. Noble Company. 

The Orange & Corona plants combined to produce over 1 million tons of Asphalt for the first time in Company history.

Orange Asphalt plant upgraded again with an additional 3-300 tons silos and the removal of the batch plant.  With a total of 9 silos, the Orange plant has become the single largest producing asphalt plant in the U.S.  With ability to store 2,400 tons in silos and produce up to 500 tons per hour. 

Corona Batch plant reaches its highest annual production to date, producing over 400,000 tons of asphalt in a single year.

Upgraded the Crushing operations at the Orange facility with a new dual stage crushing facility capable of producing over 450 tons per hour.  With the facility upgrade the R.J. Noble Company is now diverting, and recycling over 700,000 tons of construction debris annually, from our local landfills.

Orange Asphalt plants sets a new company record producing over 1,000,000 tons of Asphalt in a single year.

We recently upgraded our Corona Asphalt plant from a batch plant to an Astec Double Barrel Green plant to parallel the Orange facility.  The plant includes 6-300 tons silos giving us a storage capacity of 1,800 tons and allow us produce asphalt at 500 ton per hour.

Currently, Mike’s daughter, KaSondra holds position at the company as V.P. of Administration and Marketing. She has been working at the company since high school and graduated Chapman University. Mike’s son, Austin, is currently the V.P. of Operations. He has been working with the company since high school. Starting full time after high school graduation, Austin went to night school and graduated from Brandman University. Working alongside Mike, both kids plan on growing the company significantly, servicing more of Northern and Southern California.

Michael Carver retires after 43 years of dedication, hard work and commitment to the company. Austin Carver is promoted to President of the company with his sister right by his side as VP. The Company continues to grow and prosper through the pandemic and remains a safe and healthy work environment.