Obit: Novak, John Rev. (1883 - 1958)

Contact: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Novak, Treacy, Schulz, Brockman, Brady, Dolan, Siegler 
 

----Source: Abbotsford Tribune (Abbotsford, Clark County, Wis.) 02/27/1958 
 

Novak, John Rev. (21 June 1883 - 21 Feb. 1958) 
 

The Rev. John Novak, pastor at St. Bernard’s Catholic church here from 1933 to 1937, died Friday at St. Joseph’s hospital, Dubuque, Iowa, at the age of 74 years. 
 

Funeral services were held Monday morning at 11:00 o’clock at St. Mary’s Catholic church, Greenwood, followed by internment in the Willard cemetery. The Pontificial Mass of Requiem was offered by the Most Rev. John P. Treacy, bishop of La Crosse. The Rev. Raymond Schulz, present pastor of St. Bernard’s, was among the clergy assisting. The Rev. Francis Brockman, of Waumandee, and the Rev. Charles Brady, of Nekoosa, former pastors here, also attended. The clergy sang the requiem mass. 
 

Father Novak was born in Yugoslavia June 21, 1883, and came to America at the age of 16. He studied for the priesthood in St. Francis Seminary, Milwaukee, and at St. Paul Seminary, St. Paul. 
 

He was ordained to the priesthood at Lead, South Dakota, Dec. 18, 1908, later entering the Catholic University at Washington, D.C. for postgraduate studies. In 1917, he was assigned as pastor at Willard, followed by Abbotsford, Greenwood and Junction City. 
 

Last November, Father Novak was injured in an accident near Waupaca when a large deer bounded on to the highway into the path of a car in which he was a passenger. He had been hospitalized in Marshfield for a time and ten weeks ago was taken to Dubuque where he suffered a stroke about two weeks ago. 
 

Surviving him are one brother and one sister in Yugoslavia and a cousin at Greenwood. 
 

Mr. and Mrs. C. T. Dolan and Miss Margaret Siegler attended the services at Greenwood Monday morning. Other parishioners attended a requiem High Mass for Father Novak at St. Bernard’s Catholic church here at 7:45 that morning.