Antonín Cekota

* recorded in the personal card:

• born on 13 January 1899 in Napajedla
• education – trained
• foreign language skill – German and English language
• hired by the company 1915-1916, 1925
• residence – Kotěrova 870, Pod Tlustou 1049,
• Pod Rozhlednou 1802, Lazy 3228

He trained as a shoemaker and changed jobs in four shoe companies in Zlín within ten years: Štěpánek (1914) – Bata (1915-1916) – Zapletal (1916-1919) – Jirousek and Novák (1919-1925). After all these experiences, he returned to Bata company in 1925 and stayed here permanently. From June 1926 he was the editor and head of the department that managed the publishing of Bata periodicals and publications. These were the newspaper „Sdelení“ (The message), published since 1930 under the name Zlín, the magazine Bata service to the public and a number of others. Cekota also edited books and brochures that presented the company to the general public at the time, and he also organized the book Reflections and Speeches with Bata texts. In 1939, Cekota emigrated to Canada and in the following decades collaborated with Tomas Bata junior. In Toronto, he published 1981 biographical work Entrepreneur extraordinary Tomas Bata. He died in 1995.

Tomas Bata through the eyes of Antonín Cekota: The main factor was the lifestyle of a person working in industry. For Tomas Bata, the basis of such a lifestyle was the family, living in a favourable environment, healthy for the development of the individual and with a friendly relationship with the neighbours. And his environment was a family house with an individual entrance and a garden, which was separated by space, but connected to an interest in the soil, nature and its aesthetic application in the street. Children's playgrounds and avenues of trees turned the street into a small village where everyone knew everyone.

Antonín Cekota, 1934  (SOkA Zlin, o. č. 1426, p. č. 6)