Jan Píšala (Hogan)

photo: ORJ Opava
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Mgr. Jan Píšala, aka Hogan among the Scouts, was born in 1943 in Radvanice. Five months before his birth, the Gestapo arrested his father, Prof. Jan Píšala, for his activity in an illegal resistance organization which was supporting the families of persecuted people. His father experienced the camps Auschwitz and Buchenwald - Dora, which was known for its underground factory for V1 and V2 rockets. The family returned back to Opava after the war, where Hogan attended grammar school. He eventually graduated from the Faculty of Pedagogy in Ostrava in 1967. In 1967-1968, he began leading a troop called Forest Lads (Lesní hoši). After the restoration of Scouting he became a leader of the 9th troop in Opava, and on October 28, 1968, he finally took his Scout oath. During the period of restoration in 1968-1970, he also served as a deputy to the education correspondent of the Junák District Council in Opava. During the subsequent disbandment of the Junák organization (Czech Scouts), he experienced a conflict with the Pioneer organization of the Socialist Youth Union which falsely accused them of setting clubrooms on fire. At the beginning of the normalization period he was also active as a volleyball coach. He ceased working as a teacher as a result of the pressure to join the Communist Party. Instead, he began working as a computer programmer in a company for information technology optimization under the Ministry of Agriculture in Opava. Then he worked in the Centre for Young Hikers and Naturalists, where he was active as a professional lecturer and organizer of camps. In 1989, he participated on the restoration of Junák in Opava where he also started a Water Scouts centre called Poseidon, serving as its leader in 1990-1998. After the Velvet Revolution he was the principal’s deputy in an elementary school, and later he became a school principal. In 1998-2010, he was involved in the local city administration of Opava, and in 2000-2008, he served as the chairman of the Junák Regional Council for the Moravian-Silesian region. In 2004 he was awarded the Bronze Beaver decoration for development of Water Scouting. In 2010 he was appointed to the Silesian patrol of Petr Bezruč within the Svojsík’s troop.