Dr. Gertrude
Novak earns Don C. Piemonte Award
The 2006 Don C. Piemonte Community Award, sponsored by the Gazette, was presented to Gertrude Novak, MD, on Nov. 9.
The award is given in honor of late Near West Side resident Don C. “Donnie” Piemonte, who died in a traffic accident in 1996. Piemonte was only 36 years old when he died, but he left an enduring legacy to his family and the community. He worked for the City of Chicago for many years, initially with the Chicago Park District as a laborer at Sheridan Park. He later moved to the Department of Streets and Sanitation and worked his way up to lead man on the City’s snow removal team for the Southwest Side, the position he held when he was killed in a traffic accident returning home from work late one evening.
Piemonte also served as precinct captain in the old 1st Ward (the area he worked in now is in the 25th Ward) and worked hard to help his neighbors—especially senior citizens.
“Donnie Piemonte epitomized all that is good about the Near West Side, and indeed, all that is good about the City of Chicago—a city of neighborhoods,” remarked Gazette editor and publisher Mark J. Valentino at the awards ceremony. The event was attended by Novak; members of the Piemonte family, including Donnie’s mother, Helen, brothers John and Mark, and 12-year-old son, Michael; and Gazette Associate Editor William S. Bike, Assistant Editor Anne Nordhaus-Bike, and Advertising Manager Carmen Valentino.
“One of the things I will always cherish is the enduring friendship I shared with Donnie Piemonte,” added Valentino. “Not only did we grow up together on the Near West Side, but we stayed right here in the community, and each, in our own way, found a way to give back to the place we loved so dearly.”
Seeing a need for childcare in the community, Piemonte and his wife, Maryann Schwandt, opened University Village Day Care and Pre-School on West Taylor Street in 1993.
Novak was nominated for the Piemonte Community Service Award by the late John Insalata, who grew up on the Near West Side and returned many years later to live and to gather historical data on the community. Insalata later introduced and wrote the Gazette’s Reminiscing column for many years.
A noted attorney, writer, and radio personality, Insalata observed in his recommendation letter that “Dr. Novak spends her whole life helping others. She has worked at Cook County Hospital for more than 50 years. She is a teacher and finds homes for people, serves communion to the homebound, and drives seniors to complete much needed errands such as obtaining Chicago Transit Authority vouchers, food, or medicines.”
A pathologist on staff at old Cook County Hospital since 1953 and now at John H. Stroger Hospital of Cook County, Novak returned to the classroom and completed specialty training in family medicine in 1971. She also teaches at Rush University Medical Center and at Malcolm X College, where she trains students in the Physicians Assistant program.
Born in Vienna of Bohemian ancestry, Novak lived there with her Catholic mother and Jewish father until her family sent her to a boarding school in England in the late 1930s to escape the growing Nazi threat.
In 1940, Novak and her mother and sisters reunited with her father, who had come to the U.S. a year earlier. In 1951, she earned her medical degree in pathology from New York Medical College. She arrived in Chicago in 1953 to take a position on staff at Cook County Hospital.
Novak also has applied her medical expertise volunteering with the City’s Health Care for the Homeless Project, the Eldorado Home Health Service, and the Bethel Clinic and has served on medical missions to Brazil, Haiti, Thailand, Nepal, Zaire, and Guyana and in the U.S. in Alaska and Arizona.
Of her work with at Malcolm X, Novak said, “I have always enjoyed the teaching aspects of my career, and I find my present contact with the students in the Physicians Assistant program especially satisfying, largely because many of the students are from the inner city and are very dedicated and focused on their intensive academic commitments and related community outreach activities.”
Those attending the award ceremony were enthralled by Novak’s recollection of growing up during the Nazis’ rise, escaping to America, and her choice of a profession largely dominated by men at the time. “There were only six women in our class of 100 at New York Medical College,” Novak recalled.
John Piemonte concurred with Valentino, who remarked at the ceremony that “Donnie would be proud of the selection of Dr. Gertrude Novak as the 2006 recipient of the Don C. Piemonte Award.”
“What a remarkable woman,” said John Piemonte. “She truly is an example of someone who has not let the hardships and obstacles of life get in the way of her hopes and aspirations. My family enjoyed learning more about Dr. Novak’s amazing story and joins with the Gazette in congratulating her on many years of service to the medical profession and all whom she has touched.”
“I have been blessed to meet Don's wonderful
family and to have been allowed to be an instrument multiple contributions
to this neighborhood!” Novak exclaimed.
“The family is really a model one with close relationships between mother
Helen and the younger generations, and I would be most happy to keep in
touch with them.”
“I will treasure this award deeply and try to continue to live up to what it
stands for,” she continued.
“I’m also grateful to the Gazette, which is to be commended for sponsoring
the award and encouraging individuals’ contributions to community life.”
Michael Piemonte read the inscription on the plaque presented to Novak before presenting the plaque and a cash award to her from the Gazette.
Previous Don C. Piemonte Community Award winners are Carmen “Carmie Shoes” DeLaurentis and Sr. Francilla Kirby, BVM, of Holy Family Parish.
“The Gazette is proud to present this award in memory of Donnie and pleased that it can honor the good works of the everyday people who accomplish great things in their communities without fanfare or attention,” Valentino said.
Nomination information for the 2007 Don C. Piemonte Community Service Award will be announced in the March 2, 2007 issue of the Gazette.
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