By Patricia Rouzer
Robert Wack wears enough hats to make a milliner reel–pediatrician, Westminster councilman, political activist, social champion, entrepreneur, history buff, editorial letterwriter, aspiring author, karate student, devoted husband, doting father, steadfast friend. Friends wax ecstatic about his energy, intellect, commitment, compassion and sense of humor. Is this man for real? If so, his ego must be larger than City Hall.
Enter Robert Wack (no one calls him Bob), just your average Superman. Real he is; egocentric he’s not. Well-spoken and smart, he is astonishingly down to earth.
He arrives at The Pour House on Westminster’s Main Street, late. Tall, muscular, with a boyish Everyman face, he disembarks from the family mini-van, apologizing. The day after the Presidential election ,Wack, 43, vice chair of Carroll’s Democratic Central Committee, has been delayed by commiserating confederates devastated by the outcome. “Everybody is stunned; everybody wants to talk about it,” he says.
If you expect partisan vitriol from Wack, you’ve got the wrong Democrat. Call him disappointed, not shattered. He believes people of good will can agree to disagree–and work together for the common good. That attitude serves him and the community well, colleagues say.
“Robert is a true renaissance man–articulate, well read–a man of many interests,” said Damian Halstad, Westminster Council President. “He isn’t a classic politician. His only agenda is the merits of the issue at hand. Many come to politics seeking validation that they lack in other areas of their lives. That isn’t Robert.”
A renaissance man he is, fascinated by a broad range of topics and issues–public policy, technology, literature, science, medicine, business, politics, the arts, culture, the Internet and telecommunications. The list seems endless. A student of Karate, Wack is two-thirds of the way toward earning his black belt. He says the sport helps him in tense situations– but not how you might think. “It teaches self control and discipline. Self defense is just one small part of it.”
Wack took a circuitous route to his current status as budding politico and full-time doc. Not Carroll home-bred, he arrived via Bethesda, Maryland; South Bend, Indiana; Chicago; Washington, D.C; Hawaii, and Germany.
Even in college, Wack, an alumnus of Notre Dame who grew up in Bethesda, was an intriguing mix of hard-eyed scientist and touchy-feely liberal arts scholar. Juggling the Great Books curriculum and pre-med studies, he neared graduation realizing, “I didn’t really like the people in pre-med. I didn’t like their attitude. They valued science over people. I began to think I wasn’t cut out for medicine.”
After four post-college years working at construction–“ That was hard, freezing work”– proof reading, and technical writing he changed his mind. Wack beefed up his transcript at Chicago’s Loyola University, then completed Georgetown University’s medical school under a U.S. Army program. On Match-Day, when graduating medical students nationwide get their residency assignments, Wack went to a party and met the woman who became his wife, Lisa.
A health care consultant, Lisa traveled with him to Hawaii and Germany as he fulfilled his military obligation. She is, he says, his anchor and closest friend. “When I get too absorbed, Lisa is the one who says it is time to take a break and do things as a family,” he says. Jenny Teeter, a Wack family friend, said, “Lisa is a pillar of strength and calm. She is very warm and genuine. And like Robert, she is very unassuming.”
After his military service, the Wacks looked for a welcoming place in which to raise their children and where Robert could work in a hospital. In a kind of medical kismet, his resume landed at the Carroll Hospital Center just as an opening occurred for an in-house pediatrician. He was hired and today serves as director of hospital-based pediatrics. In Westminster for eight years, the Wacks live on West Green Street with daughter Sarah, 10, and sons Michael, 8, and Jeffrey, 4.
Wack is fascinated by children. “Kids are remarkably resilient,” he said. “They are so easy to help and their bodies are so strong and full of vitality.” But still, he sometimes sees children whose problems are severe and whose outlooks are not so bright. “It’s hard–it’s very, very hard. All you can do is do the best you can.”
Wack’s foray into politics came more by circumstance than plan. At a barbecue in June 2002, many among the assembled bemoaned the lack of Democratic candidates in the upcoming House of Delegates election. “I was just listening when somebody said, ÔHey, what about you (running)?’” he recalled.
He demurred. Democrats badgered. After reviewing the incumbent’s Annapolis track record, he took up the gauntlet.
“It was a whirlwind campaign,” he recalled. But it was an unsuccessful whirlwind that nonetheless earned Wack high marks for making a strong run with few resources on short notice. So, when a vacancy occurred on the Westminster City Council, Wack got the nod. Sworn in on January, 27, 2003, he will serve until May, 2007.
The new councilman immediately took on the fight with Adelphia Cable over franchise revenues, a complex, arcane, downright stupefying issue that is right up Wack’s alley. As vice chair of Carroll’s Cable Regulatory Commission, he has pushed Adelphia hard for payment of franchise fees to which the county and its municipalities feel entitled.
Wack, a history buff, also rallied locals to establish an annual commemoration of Corbit’s Charge, a Civil War clash between Union troops and Confederate forces led by J.E.B Stuart on the outskirts of Westminster. The encounter delayed Stuart’s arrival in Gettysburg and may have given the Union an edge in that momentous battle.
Wack’s projects and accomplishments are abundant– and increasing. A current passion is Access Carroll, a Main Street health clinic that will serve
the uninsured and underinsured pinched between shrinking Medicaid coverage and many physicians’ decisions not to accept pro bono patients in the face of skyrocketing malpractice premiums. Wack chairs the steering committee.
Teeter, a member of the Access Carroll board, said Wack’s passion for his causes is matched only by his talent for working with people. “Robert has a knack for pulling the right people together– for getting people invested and getting them involved .That unique ability and his genuine concern for people are reflected in everything he does,” she said.
