Michael Raiger Receives First Laub-Novak Award

• 

Details

Published on Monday, 03 March 2014 16:04

Ave Maria University literature professor Michael Raiger is the first recipient of an independent award established by noted author and philosopher Michael Novak to honor excellence in teaching in the arts and the humanities.

The award, which is a private initiative of the Novak Family Foundation, is named to honor Mr. Novak's late wife, the artist Karen Laub-Novak, who Mr. Novak said, "found such joy in beauty and its disciplines."

More than 50 friends, colleagues and students of Dr. Raigers were treated to desserts, champagne and student musical performances in the professor's honor.

Several letters were read from former students of Dr. Raiger, thanking him for challenging, encouraging and inspiring them. Many students also commended him for his availability on campus, or at his favorite haunts in town, the Bean of Ave Maria and the Queen Mary Pub. Professor Blanford Parker, a friend and former teacher of Dr. Raiger's, read a tribute to friendship by Cicero and the evening closed with a recitation by student Sophie Pakaluk of a poem by Coleridge, on whom Dr. Raiger is an internationally-recognized expert.

Mr. Novak said that he plans to announce two other recipients of the award later in the spring academic term.

Pictured: above right, Dr. Raiger (center) with his wife, Caitlin, and Mr. Novak; below, Dr. Raiger (far left) listens to students singing to open the evening. Pictures on the wall are by Karen Laub-Novak.