Prchlik was born the eldest of four siblings in Cleveland. His brother, Richard, became a politician and professor in Colorado. Raised in a Czech immigrant community, he did not learn English until he went to school. After graduating from Cleveland West Technical High School, he was nominated for an officers training program at Yale University, where he was a classmate of George H. W. Bush and William F. Buckley Jr.[2]
College
He served as an Ensign on the aircraft carrier, the USS White Plains in the Pacific War in the middle of his college career. After the war ended, he returned to New Haven, Connecticut, where he lettered in football, wrestling. As a college All-American, he played in both the 1948 East West Shrine game and the College All Star game.
Prchlik married his wife, Patricia Hallihan, a local resident in 1949. Prchlik's nephew, Andrew Perchlik, in an environmental activist and member of the Vermont Senate.[5][6]