Chester J. Nowak, 77, of Barrington and formerly of Arlington Heights, retired in 1991 from private practice as an optometrist in Niles for 46 years. Mr. Nowak, a Chicago native, died Monday, Oct. 9, in Governors Park Healthcare Center, Barrington. Mr. Nowak attended the former Monroe College of Optometry, Chicago, from 1943 to 1945. He received a doctor of optometry degree from the Illinois College of Optometry in 1945. Mr. Nowak, a researcher in childhood vision disturbances and contact lens techniques, designed, developed and manufactured Power Blend contact lenses. He published “What Parents Should Know About Their Children’s Eye Vision,” a book about visual training, with eye exercises, in the 1980s. Mr. Nowak was a fellow of the National Eye Research Foundation. “He was very energetic,” said his daughter Sandra Jane Calvanese. “He really enjoyed life a lot. He was constantly inquisitive. He was always reading. He was entrepreneurial. He was an independent thinker.” Other survivors include his wife of 57 years, Florence J.; three more daughters, Susan Michalena Peterson, Sharlene Joyce Stellmach and Pamela Jo Wilhelm; two sons, Robert Chester and Jerome Cyril; a brother, Peter; two sisters, Irene Szewczyk and Lillian Zawadski; 17 grandchildren; and a great-grandson. Services have been held.
