Clock tower proposed to honour beloved M.D.
Monument in roundabout would pay tribute to late Dr. Jovanovic
A legendary doctor who for 50 years worked night and day caring for his immigrant patients — often falling asleep at their kitchen tables during late-night house calls — will be memorialized with a 33foot clock tower on Windsor’s Via Italia.
Dr. Lazar Jovanovic wasn’t Italian. He came from the former Yugoslavia, but went to medical school in Rome, fluently spoke five or six languages, including Italian, and was cherished by new Canadians of all backgrounds who flocked to his Erie Street office.
He would show up after working a 12-hour shift in the hospital emergency, and find a lineup of patients waiting for him at midnight. He’d stay there until 3 or 4 a.m., until everyone was seen.
Jovanovic handed out free medication and turned down payments from families that couldn’t afford it, instead enjoying a dinner at their homes. His dedication and stamina was remarkable, according to local physicians who knew him.
“He was a force of nature, he really, really was,” Erie Street Business Improvement Association vice-president Teresa Silvestri said of Jovanovic, a gentle giant of a man who died in 2004 at the age of about 92.
“He took my tonsils out, actually. He did something for everybody.”
The Dr. Lazar Jovanovic Memorial Clock Monument is being proposed by the BIA for the roundabout built several years ago at Erie and Parent Avenue.
Estimated to cost between $75,000 and $100,000, it will be constructed with a steel frame, a reinforced concrete base and limestone panels covering the frame. Much of the work is being donated by local Italians in the construction industry, including engineer Piero Aleo, who designed the structure. Others in the Italian community have made cash donations. They’re hoping for city council approval next week, so they can start work immediately and have it finished by the end of the summer.
“It’s a piece of art and it will represent the whole community, the people who struggled and made a success of their lives,” said Silvestri. “This clock is dedicated to them, not only Italians. It’s for everyone.”
Silvestri said Jovanovic often made house calls. Sometimes, he’d surrender to exhaustion and fall asleep right at your table. And families would let him be, until he awoke 20 minutes later, invigorated and ready to move on to his next patient.
“He financially did well but he didn’t work for the money,” said Dr. Bob Jovanovic, a semi-retired orthopedic surgeon who was not related to Lazar Jovanovic but came to know him well after shadowing him as a medical student.
“He drove around in his beat-up station wagon with his dog in the car and he’d work emerg, he’d work his office and he did house calls,” Bob Jovanovic said, noting that he cared for dying cancer patients in their homes, saving the health system money. But despite this, he had a bitter fight with Health Ministry officials who were astounded — and disbelieving — at how many house calls he made.
“He was probably one of the best doctors I’ve ever known. A very knowledgeable guy in all fields of medicine,” the surgeon said. “I don’t think there ever was or will be another like him.”
He said one night while working a long shift in emerg he received a call requesting a house call. He got in his station wagon and drove to the address and found no one home, so went in and fell asleep. It turned out he’d gone to the wrong home. When the residents arrived home and discovered him asleep, they called police, who arrived and told them to stay quiet and not wake him. The officer told them: “That’s old Dr. Jovanovic, let him sleep.”
He was probably one of the best doctors I’ve ever known. A very knowledgeable guy in all fields of medicine.
When Dr. Sal Kizis arrived in Windsor in the early 1970s to take over the physician duties at HotelDieu emergency with three other young doctors, they needed a fifth doctor and Jovanovic joined them.
“It was unbelievable. This guy was co-operative, good at what he did and took no guff from anybody,” Kizis said, referring to the fact he tossed out unruly patients who were abusive to nurses. “He was marvellous, he was absolutely marvellous.”
Kizis recalls driving home from work at 2 or 3 a.m. and seeing him still at work at his Erie Street storefront office, with dozens lined up to see him. “He was beloved by his clientele, and it was remarkable how hard he worked.”
After practising in Windsor for about 50 years, Jovanovic left Windsor for Texas in 1995 at the age of 83, and continued to practise.
Even in his 90s, he was keenly following the latest medical advances on his computer.
Nobody was as dedicated to patients as Jovanovic, said Kizis, who said he’s happy the doctor is being recognized.
“Even though he hasn’t been around for 15 or 20 years, his memory is still here.”