My creed was to do my job
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Josef Kutal was born on 17 March 1940 in Tunisia. His father Josef graduated from the Baťa School of Labour in Zlín and became a so-called young man. He was sent by the company to America with two of his classmates to learn accounting. The young men returned to Zlín with an invention that was not known in Czechoslovakia - the escalator, which the Baťa company installed in the Zlín department store. He married Maria Fišerová. In 1938, he was sent by Bata to the Tunisian branch and became its director. Jiří was born in Tunisia, as were his two brothers. My mother was a housewife. The family experienced one day of bombing in 1943, of which the witness has unpleasant memories. In 1947, the Kutals decided to return home to Zlín. The witness recalls how his father later regretted it. His father worked for the Baťa family, later in the nationalised Svit and in the Exico company, which was engaged in foreign trade. In 1950 he was fired from his job without notice, along with other young men. Mother joined Ground Contstructions as a secretary at the company’s headquarters, father joined Pramen as an inspector. Jiří Kutal was not accepted to university after secondary school and worked as a labourer for a year. After a year of work he graduated from the Faculty of Civil Engineering at Brno University of Technology. All his life he devoted himself to the design of water management structures. In 1990, as a non-party member, he was appointed director of Barumprojekt in Zlín. He did not enjoy the official managerial position, he left the company after two years and to this day (2025) designs water management structures as a private person.
