To preserve the continuity of the faith
Ing. Jan Doskočil was born January 13, 1942 in Pelhřimov. His father worked as a shop assistant and his mother was a housewife who raised Jan and his brother. In 1947 the family moved to Hradec Králové. After completing elementary school, Jan studied at the Secondary Technical School of Chemistry in Hradec Králové and he continued in his studies at the College of Chemical Technology in Pardubice. In 1965, after graduation and army service, he worked as a researcher in the Research Institute for Electrotechnical Ceramics in Hradec Králové. In January 1968 he initiated the abolishment of the company’s trade union ROH (Revolutionary Trade Union Movement). In May of that year he established a local chapter of KAN, a Club of Committed Non-Party Members, in Hradec Králové. In 1971 he did not pass the political screening for non-Party members and he was dismissed from his job for disrupting the socialist order. Jan subsequently worked in non-skilled jobs in the state-owned road company, where he remained until 1975. Then he began working as a driver in the Water Supply and Sewage Company. Simultaneously, he completed a postgraduate course at the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague and became employed as a waste-water technologist. Jan was also active in the underground church until the fall of the communist regime. In 1990 he became the head of the water supply laboratories. The company later became privatized. In the same year Jan started working in the City Council of Hradec Králové. From 1994 to 1998 he served as the mayor’s deputy and later as the mayor. In 1998 he began working for the Bishopric in Hradec Králové in the property management department and later in the heritage preservation department. In 2009 he received the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Award for his work for the Hradec Králové Bishopric. He and his wife raised 3 sons. Today, Ing. Jan Doskočil lives in Hradec Králové.