Stephen Herman Noel was born November 17, 1957, in Peoria, Illinois to Lee and Mary Spainhower Noel. He graduated from City High School in Iowa City, Iowa, in 1976 and Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois, in 1980 with a degree in Chemistry. Steve met Elisabeth (Beth) Jones at Augustana and they were married in 1981. He graduated from The University of Iowa College of Medicine in 1984, completed a pathology externship, and then went on a medical mission trip to Sierra Leone, West Africa, with Beth for the first half of 1985. He completed a residency in Orthopedic Surgery at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and joined his first private practice in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, in 1990.

When their first son, Lee, was born in 1991, Steve and Beth left the beauty of the woods and the Great Lakes of Michigan for the prairie of western Iowa to be closer to their families by joining Northwest Iowa Orthopedics in 1992. Steve continued to combine his love of hunting and fishing with his passion for Orthopedic Surgery and his kind and generous patients. When he wasn't operating, seeing patients in his clinic, or sitting in a tree stand or duck blind, he was home with Beth and his boys. With the arrival of Andrew and Louis in 1993 and 1995, he filled up any spare time with hockey, baseball, Boy Scouts, fishing, and homework.

Steve was always looking for the next challenge, and along with some of his partners at NWIO saw an opportunity to expand on a vision of collaboration between Sioux City orthopedic surgeons, neurologists, and neurosurgeons. In 2000, Northwest Iowa Orthopedics was transformed into The Center for Neurosciences, Orthopedics and Spine, resulting in a medical practice that challenged Steve to broaden his horizons for patient care because of the interesting surgical cases that ensued.

In October of 2006, Steve was diagnosed with metastatic colon cancer and underwent three surgeries and numerous rounds of chemotherapy in the course of a year. The roots of his Catholic faith deepened that year, and he developed a steely resolve to survive on earth with the promise of peace in eternity. Steve passed away on October 22, 2007, leaving Beth, his three sons, his parents, a brother and two sisters behind, as well as a legacy of leadership, service to his patients and partners, and physical and spiritual endurance.

The hope of the Stephen H. Noel Memorial Fund is to commemorate these qualities of Steve by inspiring and assisting young people to pursue a career in medicine.