America lost a clear thinker and dear friend with the passing of Michael Novak on February 17, 2017.  Novak was committed to rightly ordered liberty and cared deeply about the principles and practices that produce it.  His enormous body of work emphasizes the cultural prerequisites for political and economic freedom, as he stressed that economic conservativism and social conservatism are indivisible.  His example and encouragement helped form many scholars and his thoughts equipped a generation of policymakers to defend a free and virtuous society.