He avoided the military by working in the Ostrava mines, where he saved lives
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Josef Chvátal was born on January 29, 1953, in Kroměříž. He spent his childhood on a farm in Viceměřice. His father, Josef Chvátal, worked as a signalman for the railroad, and his mother, Jarmila Chvátalová, tended pigs. At school in Nezamyslice, his teacher Vítězslav Lang introduced him to paleontology. This interest led him to Příbram, where he graduated in 1972 with a degree in geological exploration and mining surveying. He then worked for two years in Prostějov as a land surveyor. For political reasons, he opposed the army’s suppression of demonstrations and refused to serve in the military. To obtain a deferment, he began working in 1974 as a mine surveyor at the Jan Šverma Mine in Ostrava. He quickly found his footing in the demanding deep-mine environment. In 1978, he also became a volunteer mine rescuer. He worked in this dangerous profession for eight years and, among other things, participated in the successful rescue of trapped miners. He definitively ended his underground career in September 1992 in the position of permanent inspection officer. Subsequently, he devoted many years to surveying utility networks and land consolidation projects. In 2025, Josef Chvátal lived in Ostrava and worked as a tour guide at the Michal Mine National Cultural Monument.
