Charles Novacek

Charles Novacek was born in Ozdany, Czechoslovakia in 1928. His youth from the age of eleven to twenty was spent in the Czech resistance, first against the Nazis and then the Communists. After escaping his homeland in 1948, Novacek fled to Germany, then Venezuela. He was finally able to immigrate with his family to the United States in 1956, where he taught himself English as his seventh language. In addition to being an accomplished engineer for many Detroit civil engineering projects, Novacek was a talented artist who carved stone and painted many fine and vibrant works, and a world traveler who was ever interested in the beauty and intricacy of other cultures. He was a lifelong learner who continually sought knowledge, earning two masters degrees and studying Chinese in his retirement years. Novacek wrote all his life, but didn't start writing his memoir, Border Crossings: Coming of Age in the Czech Resistance until the year 2000. He died in Detroit, Michigan in July, 2007.