Josef was born under the family name Körbel on September 20, 1909 to Czech parents Arnost and Olga Körbel, both of whom were killed in
the Holocaust. He married Anna Spiegelová on April 20, 1935. They had met in secondary school around 1928. Anna was born in 1910 to Alfred Spiegel and Růžena Spiegelová,
assimilated Czech Jews. Her parents gave her the common Czech nickname of Andula. Korbel called her Mandula, a
portmanteau of "Má Andula" (Czech for "My Andula"), while Anna called him Jozka. At the time of their daughter Madeleine's birth, Josef was serving as press-attaché at the Czechoslovak Embassy in
Belgrade. During their time in England the Korbels converted to Catholicism and dropped the umlaut from the family name, resulting in the second syllable of "Korbel" being stressed. Korbel returned to
Czechoslovakia after the war, receiving a luxurious
Prague apartment expropriated from Karl Nebrich, a
Bohemian German industrialist
expelled under the
Beneš decrees. Korbel died in 1977. After his death, the University of Denver established the Josef Korbel Humanitarian Award in 2000. Since then, 28 people have received it. The Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver was named the
Josef Korbel School of International Studies on May 28, 2008. ==Academic work==