Bob Vanasek, a longtime DFL Party leader from New Prague and former speaker of the Minnesota House of Representatives, will be installed as the new honorary consul of the Czech Republic for the four-state area of Minnesota, Iowa, North and South Dakota on Friday, Sept. 19.

Czech Ambassador Petr Kolar, will install Vanasek to the honorary post. He will be the third person to hold the title.

Robert Vanasek will be the third holder of the honorary consul post. The first honorary consul was Dr. M. Proshek, who held the post until the beginning of the Cold War. The honorary consul was re-established in 1999 and the post was held by Josef Mestenhauser.

Vanasek’s Czech background and outstanding career in Minnesota makes him an outstanding honorary consul, according to Czech officials. Vanasek holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Minnesota and a master’s in public administration from Harvard University.

He served in the Minnesota House for 20 years, four years as speaker. After leaving the Legislature in 2002, he was president of the Minnesota High Technology Council for three years and vice president of public affairs at the Metropolitan State University for four years. For the past 10 years he has owned and operated his own consulting business, Robert Vanasek & Associates Inc.

Joining Kolar to install Vanasek will be Marek Skolil, consul general of the Czech Republic in Chicago to whom the honorary consul  reports

The honorary consul of the Czech Republic in St. Paul was re-established immediately after the “velvet revolution” freed the former Czechoslovakia from the Soviet orbit in 1999 to serve a sizeable and growing Czech community in the four upper Midwestern states. The Czech Republic maintains 14 consulates in the United States, and 166 worldwide. The Czech honorary consulate joins some 30 other such honorary and official consulates with jurisdiction in the state of Minnesota.

The previous honorary consul, Josef Mestenhauser, longtime professor of international education at the University of Minnesota, is retiring after nine years of service.

The installation ceremony and reception will be held Friday, Sept. 19 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the historic 125-year old CSPS/SOKOL Hall, 383 Michigan St., St. Paul. The reception following the ceremony will be sponsored by the Czech and Slovak Sokol Minnesota, the Czech and Slovak Cultural Center of Minnesota, and the office of the Honorary Consul of the Czech Republic.

Reservations are requested by calling (612) 822-8862 or by e-mail at j-mest@umn.edu  by Wednesday, Sept. 17. For location and details, see http://www.sokolmn.org and http://www.cs-center.org.