RIP John Novack June 14th 1942-Jan 7th 2024

[Hill Haven Telephone Company]

RIP John,  Did up a memorial card for him. 

John Novack June 14 1942 – January 7th 2024

Long time telephone collector and small dog lover John Novack passed away on Sunday, January 7th 2024. He was born in Washington DC and lived in Falling Waters West Virginia until a couple of falls at home led to a short stay in the hospital. His daughter is taking care of the 4 dogs that were his remaining faithful companions. John was a compassionate, strong willed man who lived his entire life on his own terms but those terms nearly always included generosity and willingness to help others. He will be missed.

For those that met John in person or on the telephone, one couldn't help but be impressed with his deep knowledge on an impressive range of electronic and telephonic topics. He was an avid collector of set and switching equipment and had an impressive switchroom with Strowger SXS , XY , Telenorm and key telephone systems as well as any esoteric and often heavy piece of equipment. He had a wonderful belly laugh and many of his friends and close acquaintances tried to relate humorous stories to John just to hear it.

For those that only knew John from email posts on the various email lists, he was perhaps best known for his phrase "Need has nothing to do with it" ! John felt strongly that one should do or collect what one wanted and not limit ones vision to some preconceived notion. Hopefully, John friends will keep using that phrase so that we can all pause and remember John fondly when we hear or read it.

John was an early adopter of CNET and being the generous person that he was, helped dozens of people get connected to Asterisk, often preparing Thin Clients with AstLinux and helping the recipients integrate their new CNET node with whatever equipment each person wanted interfaced. Recently, there are more younger members joining CNET who already have a working knowledge of Linux but in the early days of CNET, there were a lot of collectors knowledgeable in electromechanical switching systems but uncomfortable with the idea of putting together an Asterisk system. John filled that void and was instrumental in the early growth of CNET.
John was always interested in trying to support and grow the telephone collecting organizations.

He was a long time member of ATCA and TCI serving on the TCI Board of Directors for many years including leadership roles on the Board of Directors including being vice president and president . John was also a long time member of the TCI Show and Event committee working tirelessly to make the TCI shows as enjoyable as possible.

If you're reading this and have a fond or funny John Novack story or experience, please share it with the community as we remember and honor John and his numerous contributions.

Below is a picture from the 2023 Lancaster Telephone show. I believe John was delivering that 1234G payphone upper housing to Rick Walsh.

I am not a member of ATCA or other telephone organizations. I'd appreciate if someone could cross post this email.

Rest in Piece John. We'll miss you terribly.

[MMikeJBenN27]

May he rest in peace in heaven.

Mike