RIP: 29/01/2022 - Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Fr. Thomas (Aquinas) Novak was born on 16 December 1932 in Antigo, Wisconsin (USA). He enrolled in Salvatorian Seminary, in St. Nazianz, where he became acquainted with the Salvatorians. After finishing the sixth year of minor seminary, he entered the Society´s Novitiate in Menomee, Michigan, where he made his first profession of vows on 8 September 1953. He completed his studies for the priesthood at Divine Saviour Seminary in Lanham, Maryland, and Catholic University in Washington. He was ordained a priest in the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in DC on 6 June 1959. A gifted student, Fr. Thomas would later attend Loyola University in Chicago, Illinois, and Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, receiving a Master´s Degree in Education and a Doctoral Degree in Psychology and Counselling. Fr. Thomas was mainly active in the field of teaching and research. He taught at several high schools and universities in the USA, and in the Society, he served in the field of initial formation as Novice Master for the British Province (1988), as Assistant Novice Master, Director of Candidates and Rector of Scholastics in the USA, and helping in Formation in Bangalore, India (1995) and in the Philippines in 2001. Fr. Thomas was in different terms of office in the Provincial Council of the USA Province and on the General Chapter in 1981. He was elected to the Generalate of the Society and served in Rome as General Councilor and Secretary General until 1987. His love for Blessed Francis Jordan, the Society and the Salvatorian Charism, he expressed clearly by his research and many publications about the Founder. Following two strokes in 2015, Fr. Thomas began living in the Health Center of Alexian Village. Infected by pneumonia, he peacefully died on 29 January 2022 in the hospice of Columbia-St. Mary´s. He was 89 years old of age and had been a Salvatorian for 68 years.
