By Justin Blunt; The Whetstone

He was only in grade school when he was first kicked out of school. He was always being picked on.

“I was called all types of names because I was poor,” said Joshua Nobiling, 40, an adjunct professor of art at Wesley College.

Professor Nobiling

Nobiling got into a fight in gym class in 7th grade and got kicked out.

“I would always get in school suspension, but I would always sneak out and go the woods.” he said.

Nobiling said he went to the woods because they made him comfortable.

I didn’t like the idea of being forced to be around people I didn’t like,” he said. But he still went to high school.

“I got kicked out of there my sophomore year,” he said.

A kid would always pick on him. Nobiling, said, and he got beat up because he said something to him. He doesn’t remember what.

“Outside my math class there were a group of guys waiting for me,” he said. “I got sent to the office and they told me this place wasn’t right for me, so I left school and got my GED at 18 years old.”

Nobiling grew up in East Moline, Ill., with his mother, father and two sisters. He said he was raised to be a gentleman.

“My dad was a musician, and my mom was a stay-at-home mom,” he said. His father died when Nobiling was 37.

Nobiling’s father had put away money for his family so they wouldn’t have to worry about finances. If money did become a problem, his mom would go work at different stores like Hardees. She worked there as a biscuit maker.

His dream job as a child was to be a comic book or cartoon creator.

“I wanted to be this because it was cool, plus it had art in them.” he said.

He attended Blackhawk College and majored in art, the one subject he grew to love. He earned his bachelor’s degree later from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale in Fine Arts.

During college and after Nobiling was part of a band that played at bars.

He met his wife Brandye at a bar he played; she was a bartender.

“We would see each other at parties, and we used to hang out together with other people,” he said.

One night they went to an island with a friend, and they made a fire. She told him that she liked him more than a friend.

“I was shocked because I thought I was out of her league,” he said.

They got engaged in the same place his parents did, Blackhawk Park.

“I didn’t even have a ring, I just proposed to her in an awkward way, but she didn’t care, all that mattered was the love,” he said.

They moved to Delaware because his wife got a teaching job at Salisbury University and is now the Program Chair of Community Health.

Nobiling got his master’s degree at the University of Delaware. His wife inspired him to become an art teacher.

“She knew I loved art so it would be the perfect fit,” he said.

Nobiling has had adjunct jobs at Wesley, UD, and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.

A full-time job opened at Wesley, he applied for it, but didn’t get it. But the person who got the job over Nobiling left so the school offered him the full-time job.

Nobiling has been at Wesley for almost 10 years.

Dr. James Wilson is a friend of Nobiling. They live two houses down from each other.

“I first met Josh and his wife Brandye at an event in Dover about ten years ago,” he said. “We hit it off immediately and started hanging out from that point forward.”

Many of his students love him.

Sophomore Khi’Asiah Holland said Nobiling helps her with her work in the art studio.

“When I was struggling with our midterm project, Nobiling came over to help me brainstorm new ideas that will make my artwork more amusing,” she said.

Senior Miranda Kinney also said that he is a good professor.

“I think he is a good teacher because and he is always in a positive mood, and having someone who is positive and loves their job promotes a welcoming environment to everyone,” she said.

Sophomore Alexis Reed thinks Nobiling is a good person because he is caring of others.

“He goes around to each student to make sure they are doing well and to ask them about their next project and he took his own time to purchase all of his students art supplies to they would need to succeed in his class,” she said.