Page:Czecho-Slovak Student Life, Volume 18.djvu/31

In 1902 he organized the First National Bank of Olyphant. In 1912 he founded the Slavonic Deposit Bank in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. In 1913 he founded the present Bosak State Bank in Scranton and not long ago the Americko-Bratislavská Banka in Slovakia. He has also large investments in various other prosperous enterprises.

He certainly deserves the credit and esteem he has received from the American Slovaks. Once the son of poor and humble parents, he is now one of the richest and one of the most generous Slovaks in America. When asked, he never refused help; and there is many a generous deed that he performed to gladden the hearts of his countrymen, of which the public has never heard. He has been and is a booster of both the political and religious interests of the Americans of Slovak ancestry. He holds office in a host of national, industrial and fraternal organizations. Recently he was chosen honorary president of the “Jednota” and president of the “Matica Školská”. We write of him with respect and admiration.

MR. JAMES A. CALEK.

Mr. James A. Calek, now Vicepresident of the Southwest State Bank, Chicago, was a student in the old St. Procopius College in Chicago in 1894. Because of his untiring efforts and zeal for the betterment of Czechoslovak and Catholic Institutions, he has served as president of the Czechoslovak Building and Loan League, as President of the Illinois State League of Building and Loan Associations, as Director of St. Joseph’s Orphanage, Lisle, Ill., and as one of the Speakers at the celebration in the Auditorium Theatre, Chicago, in honof of his Eminence Cardinal Mundelein.

He is now a member of the Executive-Committee of Associated Catholic Charities and a member of the Finance Committee directing the erection of the new Civic Auditorium in Chicago.

He was re-elected President of