To live honestly, truthfully, according to your conscience
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Štefan Prónay was born on February 15, 1950 in Nové Zámky. He born to the family of bank clerk František and accountant Izabela. His grandfather from father’s side was a notary in Nitra and his grandfather from mother’s side was a judge in Galanta. Both families belonged socially to the middle class, they were neither rich nor poor. The parents were married in 1939 in Nové Zámky. Štefan grew up together with his older siblings Zuzana (1939) and Paľo (1941), the third brother died at the age of five before Štefan was born. He attended elementary school between 1957 and 1965. He played sports from a young age. He started in 1963 as a swimmer, later, in 1966, he switched to athletics and engaged in steeplechase. He participated in athletics competitions at various levels, from the district championships to the national level. He experienced the year 1968 as a high school graduate, when he was accepted to study mathematics and chemistry at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the Comenius University (PvF UK) in Bratislava. From 1968 he studied at the university. In addition to his studies, he continued to play sports and compete for the important sports club Slávia. With the club, as a successful competitor, he got to compete in a capitalist country, Belgium, for the first time. He was also successful in this race and finished in second place. In addition to full-time studies at PvF UK, in 1972 he also enrolled at the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports to study coaching. After finishing his studies in 1974, he got a job as a teacher at the Gymnasium in Nové Zámky, where he worked until 1990. He completed his basic military service at the Army Center of Top Sports in Banská Bystrica, where he raced for the Dukla Banská Bystrica club. He raced until he was forty and trained young athletes at the same time. In 1990, he was elected a member of the City Council and became the vice-mayor of Nové Zámky. He was elected as a member of parliament repeatedly, and served in the City Council for 16 years. In the nineties, Štefan was a co-founder of the renewed Democratic Party and an active member of the Permanent Conference of the Civic Institute. At the regional level, he contributed significantly to the return of Slovakia to the path of democracy and European integration. In 1998, his activities in the fight against mečiarism were completed by his participation in the national candidate of the Slovak Democratic Coalition, which after the elections became the basis of the democratic and European direction of the Slovak Republic.
