ForeverMissed
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Anton Novacky, 80, of Columbia passed away on May 13 in Bratislava, Slovakia, following a brief illness. He was laid to rest near his parents and grandparents.

A Memorial Service will be held at Our Lady of Lourdes in Columbia on Saturday, August 16, 2:00 pm.  For details, email remember.novacky@gmail.com

Anton was born in Bratislava, Slovakia on June 3, 1933 to Katarina Fischer and Jan Martin Novacky.  He married Dorothy (Hyrossova) Novacky in 1958 and together they had three children: Robert (who died shortly after birth), Andrea and Tom.  Following Dori’s death in 2000 he married Marina Rehakova ; they maintained homes in Columbia and in Slovakia.

Anton received his education at Komenius University, Bratislava and was granted a PhD by the Slovak Academy of Sciences in 1965.  Following the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, Anton, his wife, and daughter immigrated to the United States.

After spending a year in Lexington, KY the Novackys settled in Columbia.  Anton was a member of the University of Missouri-Columbia’s Department of Plant Pathology from 1969 until retirement in 1998 and was active in the Interdisciplinary Plant Group. His field of expertise was plant resistance to bacterial pathogens, known as the hypersensitive response, and the electrical characteristics of plant cell membranes in healthy and diseased plants.  He collaborated with colleagues in Europe and Japan, spent two sabbaticals in Darmstadt, Germany, and was regularly invited to speak at international conferences.  He was respected and admired by the many graduate students and post-doctoral fellows he supervised.  The most common description of him by friends, colleagues and students is “a kind gentleman.”

In addition to professional research, he enjoyed hiking in the mountains, collecting pens, and photography.  He always had a camera in hand, taking photos of friends and family as well as black and white photos of nature.

He is missed by his brother, Martin, and sisters, Tess and Maria, nieces and nephews, and wife Marina, all of Slovakia.  He is missed by his children Andrea (and Bob) and Tom (and Heather), and grandchildren (Benjamin and Matthew Congdon of Redmond, WA; Alyssa, Nathan, Isaac and Audrey Novacky of Lenexa, KS.)

 

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Oci and Matthew

July 19, 2014

My son Matthew always loved to give his Oci hugs!  This is one of the rare photos in which we were able to capture my dad laughing!

 

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