Michael Novak, who died last Friday, was a gentleman — and a gentle man. A gentleman, even though his origin was not at all elite; he was born to a Slovak-American family in Johnstown, Pa. And a gentle man, who in expressing his strong and deep beliefs always treated respectfully and courteously those with other views. He was a longtime scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, as noted by AEI President Arthur Brooks in his remembrance, and a search for his works on the AEI website brings forth 414 results.
Michael started off as a Catholic theologian, way back in the days of the Second Vatican Council, and approached all sorts of issues — from capitalism to sports — from a theological perspective. His most important work, at least for many at AEI, was his 1982 book The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism, which leads off the long Michael Novak Page on amazon.com.
I first met Michael in 1972, when I was working for the McGovern campaign in Michigan and he was accompanying vice-presidential nominee Sargent Shriver on a campaign stop there. Shriver, by the way, was an intellectually serious Catholic thinker also, and Michael retained a warm regard for him even as he moved to the right politically while Shriver remained a solid if not entirely orthodox Democrat. I enjoyed reminiscing with Michael about this meeting, and he was kind enough not to recall that I totally botched advancing the Shriver event.
Michael officially retired from AEI in 2010, after the death of his wife Karen Laub-Novak, a sculptor whose works include statues of Alexander Hamilton and Norman Borlaug (the scientist whose work in developing crop hybrids may have made him responsible for saving more lives than anyone else in history). Michael and Karen were two wonderful individuals, who lighted up the lives of all those who knew them and of many more than they could ever know.
