Novak, Ben, 1943-

Ben Novak, born in 1943 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, attended Penn State where he served as president of the Undergraduate Student Government, graduating in 1965. He also graduated from Georgetown University Law School in 1968. He served one year in Vietnam, and returned to found the law firm Novak, Stover and McCarty (later Novak, Stover, and Furst), of State College. Novak was one of the founders of the Mount Nittany Conservancy (1981) and its president in 1983. He worked with student leaders in the fraternity system and student government, and founded The Other Half, Inc. which published the conservative student newspaper, The Lionhearted. He was elected to the Penn State Board of Trustees (1988-2000) where he opposed Penn State's affirmative action policy and promoted increased emphasis on undergraduate teaching. Novak continued working as a student life consultant with a variety of groups at Penn State.