I’d never heard the name Calgary before, so we went there
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MUDr. Jiří Horský was born on 19 June 1935 in Hradec Králové. His father Bohuslav was a railway engineer and his mother Věra, née Kotová, graduated from the business academy. Because his father did not join the Communist Party, he was fired from the Ministry of Transport after 1948 and returned to Plzeň to a lower position as a technical commissioner. Because of his poor cadre assessment, Jiří Horský was able to graduate from the Medical Faculty in Pilsen in 1953-1959, but he was not allowed to enter the hospital there. Instead, he was posted to Ústí nad Labem, where he worked in surgery and faced pressure from State Security (StB). In 1964, he was sent to India as a doctor for Czech workers on the construction of an energy combine. He stayed in Tiruchchirappalli until January 1967, gaining great professional experience in urology, and through his fondness for tennis and hunting he became close to an Indian Raja. After the August 1968 occupation of Czechoslovakia, he emigrated with his wife, Jarmila, née Slámová, via Austria to Canada. They chose Calgary, Alberta because of its proximity to the mountains and the possibility of skiing. In Canada, Jiří Horský had to pass eight difficult exams to work as a surgeon in a hospital, and later became chief of surgery at Rockyview General Hospital. His lifelong hobbies included tennis, skiing and hunting. After retiring from medical practice in 2009, he returned to playing the piano after a 50-year hiatus and completed ten years of music school. In 2025, Jiri Horsky was still living in Calgary.
