Lubor Ceslaus Velecky 
Biography of Lubor Ceslaus Velecky
Lubor Velecky, matriculation slip 1949-50
Lubor Velecky graduated MA from the University in 1952.
He was born in 1927 in Brno, son of Jan Velecky, who was awarded the Czech war cross in 1939 in memoriam and the Memorial plaque of the Second National Resistance for his participation in the revolt against Nazi occupation for which he was arrested and sent to concentration camp Dachau, where he died in 1945.
Velecky started his studies in Law at Masaryk University, Brno, in 1946. However, in 1948, after the coup d'etat in Czechoslovakia, which started a forty-year long Communist party dictatorship, Velecky fled Czechoslovakia for Great Britain. In 1949, he was accepted to the University of Glasgow, where enrolled for an Arts degree. He took classes in Latin, Logic (jun. Hons.) French (Hons.), English (Hons.), and Moral Philosophy (Hons.) under William Gauld Maclagan, graduating MA in 1952. During his studies at the University of Glasgow he won a number of prices, ranking first in his Moral Philosophy class for which he received the Buchanan Prize. He also won the Bowman Medal, a University Silver Medal and a Lorimer Bursary for Moral Philosophy.
Velecky later entered the Dominican Order, which took him to Oxford, South Africa and Rome, where obtained a doctorate in Theology and taught at the Vatican College. However, he later left the Order to marry Jean Elizabeth Stanier, moving to Southampton, where he was appointed lecturer in the Philosophy Department of the University of Southhampton (1965-1992).
Velecky returned to Brno only in 1991 (2 years after the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia) to collaborate with Masaryk University, and the Society of Kurt Gödel. He contributed to the translation of the complete work of St Thomas Aquinas into English, and authored many books, including Acquinas' five arguments in the Summa theologiae 1a 2, 3.
Velecky was also active in the Southampton community; a memorial plaque in Rockstone Place Park recognises his campaigning as Honorary Secretary of Southampton Common and Parks Protection Society (1974-2001), and the Southampton Orienteering Club commemorates him in their Lubor Velecky trophy.
Sources
Other Online Resources
- Encyclopedia of the History of Brno
- Lubor Ceslaus Velecky 1927-2001 by John Davies
- SCAPPS's website, Jack's spot
Archival Materials
- Glasgow University Calendar 1952-1953
- Glasgow University Calendars 1951-52 SEN10/94
- R3/3/1 Roll of graduates and dates of birth 1947 -1955
Summary
Lubor Ceslaus Velecky
Born 4 June 1927.
Died 30 November 2011.
GU Degree: MA, 1952; Arts,
University Link: Alumnus, Graduate
Occupation categories: philosophers
English snippet: Arts graduate of the University, Lecturer of PhilosophyRecord last updated: 26th May 2015
Country Associations
Czech Republic, Brno
Place of Birth
England, Southampton
Place of Death
Italy, Vatican City
University Connections
University Roles
- Alumnus
- Graduate
