Robert Novak
Robert David Sanders Novak[a] (February 26, 1931 – August 18, 2009) was an American syndicated columnist, journalist, television personality, author, and conservative political commentator. After working for two newspapers before serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, he became a reporter for the Associated Press and then for The Wall Street Journal. He teamed up with Rowland Evans in 1963 to start Inside Report,[1][2] which became the longest running syndicated political column in U.S. history and ran in hundreds of papers. They also started the Evans-Novak Political Report, a notable biweekly newsletter, in 1967.
Robert Novak
August 18, 2009 (aged 78)
- Journalist
- columnist
- commentator
- pundit
- author
- Rosanna Hall (div.)
-
Geraldine (Williams) Novak(m. 1962)
Novak and Evans played a significant role for CNN after the network's founding. He worked as a well-known television personality in programs such as Capital Gang, Crossfire, and Evans, Novak, Hunt, & Shields. He also wrote for numerous other publications such as Reader's Digest. He died of a brain tumor on August 18, 2009.
His colleagues nicknamed Novak the "Prince of Darkness",[3] a description that he embraced and later used as a title for his autobiography. He started out with moderate or liberal views, but later served as a notable voice for American conservatism in his writing and television appearances.
Early life[edit]
Novak was born on February 26, 1931, in Joliet, Illinois, the son of Jane Sanders and Maurice Novak, a chemical engineer. His paternal grandparents immigrated from Ukraine, and his mother's family was from Lithuania.[4] Novak's parents were secular Jews who had little interaction with their local Jewish community and rarely attended religious services. Novak suffered from chronic bronchitis through his early childhood, which led his mother to drive him to and from school instead of letting him walk. Because of the constant family attention, his cousins mockingly called him "Baby Jesus". Novak also loved to tease, offend, and shock his family from an early age, and he later compared himself to French rebel Bertran de Born.[5]
Novak's journalism career began when he was in high school as a student-writer for the Joliet Herald-News, his hometown newspaper, and he received ten cents per inch.[5] After high school, he attended the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UI) from 1948 to 1952.[6] His father had attended the college, and he later remarked that "I was an Illini from birth".[7] He became a brother of the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity, at the time a mostly Jewish college fraternity, while attending the University of Illinois. Novak would later use the group's 'secret handshake' whenever he met fellow alumnus Wolf Blitzer.[8]
He continued gaining journalism experience as a sports writer for the Daily Illini (DI), the college's student newspaper.[9] Novak's wrote how his disappointment about not being named the paper's main sports editor for the 1951–52 school year led him to skip his senior classes and to work full time for the Champaign-Urbana Courier. After four years at the University, Novak left it to become a full-time journalist without a degree, even though he was only one course short of the requirements. In 1993 a college Dean determined that four mandatory physical education classes that Novak had gone through for no credit should constitute enough credit hours, and Novak received his bachelor's degree. Novak later described his academic achievements as "very uneven." He spoke at the university's May 1998 commencement, and in his speech he credited the college for bringing him up from working class immigrant status into the American middle class.[7]
During the Korean War, Novak served in the U.S. Army, and he reached the rank of lieutenant. He later stated that he had fully expected to die in the service.[5]
Religious views[edit]
Raised in secular Jewish culture, Novak lived seven decades as an agnostic.[58] He briefly attended Unitarian and then Methodist services at the behest of his first and second wives, but he was not interested in either faith. He particularly disliked the Methodists' anti-Vietnam War position. Novak was introduced to Catholic Christianity in the early 1980s when his friend Jeffrey Bell, a Republican political consultant and former Reagan aide, gave him some books on the Catholic faith. At that time, Novak had nearly died from spinal meningitis.[5]
Novak's wife, Geraldine, began regular churchgoing in the early 1990s and eventually settled on St Patrick's Catholic Church, Washington, D.C. One day she persuaded Novak, who had not attended religious services for nearly 30 years, to join her at Mass. The celebrant was Fr. Peter Vaghi, whom he had known before Vaghi switched from politics to the priesthood. Novak then started to go to Mass regularly and decided to convert a few years later. According to Novak, the turning point came when he visited Syracuse University to lecture. Before he spoke, he was seated at a dinner table near a female student who wore a cross necklace. Novak asked her if she was Catholic and she asked him the same. Novak said he had been going to Mass each Sunday for the last four years, but had not converted. "Mr Novak," the young woman replied, "life is short, but eternity is forever."[58] That brief sentence chilled Novak, who felt the student had channeled the Holy Spirit. When he got home and told Geraldine, they decided it was time to convert. In May 1998 Novak was received into the Roman Catholic Church at the age of 67 and became a Traditionalist Catholic.[59] Geraldine was already a Catholic. Al Hunt, Judy Woodruff, Fred Barnes, Margaret Carlson, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Henry Hyde, and Rick Santorum attended Novak's baptism.[5]
McCloskey was one of the two priests—the other was Vaghi—from whom Novak received instruction in the Catholic faith.[5] Andrew Sullivan claimed that Novak was a member of Opus Dei.[13] John L. Allen Jr., however, in his authoritative study, Opus Dei, wrote that Novak was not a member.[60] Novak felt that his new faith did not influence his personal behavior or his political views, saying, "I'm a Christian now, but I still have some bad traits."[5]
Final years[edit]
On July 23, 2008, Novak received a police citation for failing to yield a right of way to an 86-year-old pedestrian, Don Clifford Liljenquist, who was struck by Novak in slow-moving traffic and taken to a hospital, where he was treated for minor injuries. Novak left the scene of the crash, drove approximately one block from the scene before being flagged down by a cyclist who had witnessed the collision and then called police. He said that he was unaware that a collision had occurred until being informed by eyewitnesses. This is likely to be accurate, as it is typical in patients with nondominant (usually right-sided) brain tumors that cause left-sided visual problems (including visual neglect), which Novak had ("I have lost not only left peripheral vision but nearly all my left vision").[61] The pedestrian was taken to George Washington University Hospital and treated for a dislocated shoulder.[61][62][63][64] There were numerous reports from D.C.-area residents that Novak was prone to road rage and had a habit of flipping off motorists; however, he denied that these complaints were true. "I'm 77 years old. I'm not an aggressive driver anymore." he said shortly after the July 23 incident. When asked about his Corvette, Novak replied, "I've been driving them since 1961."[65]
On July 27, 2008, four days after the car accident, Novak was admitted to Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, where he was diagnosed with brain cancer. In a written statement given to his publisher, Novak said: "Doctors will soon begin appropriate treatment. I will be suspending my journalistic work for an indefinite but, God willing, not too lengthy period."[66] Physicians often check for brain tumors in patients who didn't realize they struck something in a car accident, as this can be a focal neurologic sign.[67] Novak tendered his resignation from his column on August 4, 2008, after revealing that the prognosis on his tumor was considered "dire".[68] Later that month, he began writing new opinion columns for Creators Syndicate.[69]
On February 4, 2009, Novak announced in his newsletter, the Evans-Novak Political Report, that the biweekly newsletter would be coming to an end due to his illness. The newsletter, started four years after the column, had been published continuously since 1967.
Personal life[edit]
Novak's first wife was Rosanna Hall; they divorced. In 1962, he married Geraldine Williams, who was a secretary for President Lyndon B. Johnson. Their daughter, Zelda, worked for Ronald Reagan's presidential campaign and for Vice President Dan Quayle. They have a son, Alex, who works as an editor at Regnery Publishing.[13] Although friends with social commentator Michael Novak, Robert Novak was not related.[70]
Novak converted to Catholicism in May 1998 after his wife, Geraldine, did so. He had two children, a daughter and a son.
In his later life, Novak drove a 2002 black Corvette and he had his license suspended several times for speeding. He also participated in a charity car race in Sebring, Florida, which he won. Washingtonian magazine labeled him a "speed freak."[5] Novak was also a passionate fan of basketball, particularly of the Washington Bullets (now Wizards), and the Maryland Terrapins men's basketball team. He was a member of the Terrapins Club booster organization.[10][71] Wolf Blitzer remarked in August 2009, "I always used to see him ... Redskins games, Wizards games, always there."[8]
Novak died on August 18, 2009, at the age of 78, due to complications from a brain tumor. He had returned home to spend his last days with his family after being hospitalized from July 10 to 24.[10] He was interred at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Silver Spring, Maryland.