Joe Holoubek

Joe Holoubek MD

SHREVEPORT, LA- A Mass of the Resurrection for Joe E. Holoubek M.D., a founder of the LSU School of Medicine in Shreveport and award-winning author, will be held at 10 a.m. Monday, May 21, at St. John Berchmans Cathedral. Presiding will be Rev. Peter Mangum, rector of the cathedral. Concelebrating will be the Rev. Karl Daigle, pastor of St. Joseph Catholic Church, diocesan administrator Msgr. Earl Provenza, Rev. Richard Lombard, Msgr. Murray Clayton and other priests of the Diocese of Shreveport. Interment will be at Forest Park East, 3700 St. Vincent Ave. A vigil service will be held at 6 p.m. Sunday, May 20, at Osborn Funeral Home. Father Daigle will preside. Visitation will begin at 4 p.m.

Dr. Holoubek died May 17, Ascension Thursday, at Christus Schumpert St. Mary Place after a sudden illness. His heart stopped beating at 6 p.m., just after all his children had gathered at his bedside. He was born Sept. 9, 1915, in Clarkson, Neb., and had been a resident of Shreveport since 1945. His beloved wife, Dr. Alice Baker Holoubek, died in 2005. They practiced internal medicine together in Shreveport for more than 40 years.

Honored by the pope, Dr. Holoubek was Knight Commander with Star of the Order of St. Gregory the Great and Knight Grand Cross of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem. A founding member of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Shreveport, he was a member of the Catholic Academy of Sciences.

His gospel-based novel Letters to Luke: From His Fellow Physician Joseph of Capernaum, published in 2004, won the Writers Digest Award for Inspirational Literature and the Independent Publishers Award for Religious Fiction.

A consulting cardiologist, Dr. Holoubek chaired the Shreveport Medical Society committee that secured the funding for and developed the LSU School of Medicine in Shreveport. He served the school as associate clinical professor and clinical professor of medicine, later being named emeritus clinical professor of medicine. In 2006, LSU Health Sciences Center at Shreveport endowed the Holoubek Professorship in Medicine, which will also support an annual Dr. Joe E. Holoubek lecture series by an internal medicine physician.

Also preceding him in death were his parents, Joe and Marie Holoubek of Clarkson, Neb., and his sister and her husband, Adela and Louis Sedlak of Wilson, Neb.

A 1932 graduate of Clarkson High School, he received his bachelor's degree and M.D. from the University of Nebraska.

Dr. Joe and Dr. Alice met in 1937 at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.; they were senior medical students in a summer fellowship program in pathology. They courted by letter for two years. They married in 1939, accepting joint posts as postgraduate fellows in internal medicine at LSU Medical School in New Orleans. Dr. Joe served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps from June 1941 through World War II.

Dr. Joe served on the board of directors of the American Heart Association, as president of the Louisiana Heart Society and president of the National Federation of Catholic Physicians Guilds. He was associate editor of the Linacre Quarterly, and, in later years, delegate to the Task Force on Aging of the Catholic Diocese of Shreveport and a delegate to the Committee on Aging of the Louisiana Interfaith Conference.

He received distinguished service awards from the Shreveport Medical Society, National Federation of Catholic Physicians Guilds, the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology. He helped African-American physicians secure staffing privileges at local hospitals and membership in the Shreveport Medical Society. In 1989 Physicians and Surgeons Hospital named him Doctor of the Year.

He and Dr. Alice jointly received citations from the National Conference of Christians and Jews, the Distinguished Service Award from the LSU Medical Center Alumni Association and the Aesclepian Award from the Krewe of Aesclepius.

Dr. Holoubek never stopped learning, teaching or writing. He authored nearly 50 articles, book chapters and books on a wide variety of topics, including cardiology, medical ethics and health care of the religious and clergy.

He and Dr. Alice spent more than 50 years studying the physical sufferings of Jesus during the crucifixion. They presented more than 300 one-hour mediations on the subject.

He is survived by his children, Mary Jo O'Rear and husband Jim of Corpus Christi, Texas; Brian Holoubek, Bob Holoubek and wife Stephanie, and Martha Fitzgerald and husband T.P. Fitzgerald III, all of Shreveport; by his grandchildren & great-grandchildren, Jessica O'Rear, husband Marc Beban and daughters Leyla and Kenna of Redwood City, Calif.; Joseph Holoubek of Panama City Beach, Fla.; Brian Holoubek Jr., wife Michelle and daughter Alice of Arlington, Va.; Charles Holoubek, wife MaKayla and son Jackson of Concord, N.H.; Kristi Bedgood and husband Tracy of Shreveport, and James Holoubek of West Monroe; numerous nieces and nephews, other relatives and dear friends.

Pallbearers will be Joseph Holoubek, Brian Holoubek Jr., Charles Holoubek, James Holoubek, James L. O'Rear, T.P. Fitzgerald III, Jermy Phares and Tracy Bedgood.

Our special thanks for the excellent care of Dr. Alan J. Borne, Dr. Joe's partner. Other honorary pallbearers are Dr. Charles Wood, Mr. Don Baker, Dr. Bob Clawson, Dr. Wilfred Guerin, Dr. J.C. Brierre and all the dames and knights of the Order of St. Gregory and of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre.

Memorials may be made to St. Joseph Catholic Church, the Catholic Diocese of Shreveport or the LSU Health Sciences Center Foundation.

The family would like to pay special thanks to the loving caretakers the Mrs. Jo Ann Allen, Bunner Dean McShan, Betty Lee, Lanell Coleman, Tameeka Dupree and Connie Gibson.