Becoming deputy head of Jaroslav Foglar’s Dvojka scout team in 1945
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Vladimír Janík was born in Brno on 2 May 1927. The family moved to Prague three years later. His father was an officer of Báňská hutní společnost and his mother was a housewife. He became a scout at the instigation of his father who was a member of the parents’ scout group as an official of his company. He joined the 4th wolf pack in Prague-Dejvice, Prague led by Jiří Navrátil in 1937. Scouting in Dejvice became heavily militarised in 1939, and after Jiří Navrátil left for the Dvojka, Janík also moved to Jaroslav Foglar’s legendary troop in 1942. During the occupation, Janík was totally deployed at the Technische Nothilfe in Havlíčkův Brod, and also briefly in Prague on the railway and in the parcel post. After the war, he finished high school and became the deputy head of Jaroslav Foglar’s (Jestřáb) Dvojka in 1945, holding the position for 35 years. He enrolled at the Faculty of Law of Charles University and also joined the Czechoslovak People’s Party (ČSL), head of the youth branch in Prague 7 in 1946. After the communist coup of February 1948, he was expelled from his studies as a Junák (scout) and ČSL member. He at least completed a five-month business course at the School of Economics. In 1948 he joined the headquarters of Spojené ocelárny n.p. in Prague where he worked as a clerk in the investment department. He completed his military service between 1949 and 1951 and then joined the investment department of the Ministry of Steel and Ore Mines where he was employed until November 1956. Between 1955 and 1957, he completed an additional course at a secondary school of economics. He also transferred to Geologický průzkum survey company and then to the Institute for Ore Research, working in various positions until retirement in 1989. He was a member of the Svojsík Troop, an honorary scout unit from 1982. Vladimír Janík died in May 2012.
