Thomas Bata, the Czech-born head of the worldwide family shoe empire that bears his name, died today in Canada, an official said. He was 93.

Bata's father, Tomas, founded the shoe empire in Zlin in 1894, which later became the giant Bata Shoe Organization.

The rise of Nazism forced him to flee his homeland in 1938, and he exiled himself in Canada.

Seven years later, he returned to his newly liberated birthplace, but not for long, as the communists who took over the country after World War II, seized his factory and declared Bata a capitalist evil.

Finally, in 1989 Czech dissident leader and playwright turned president, asked Bata to come back.

Havel awarded him the country's top decoration, the Tomas Garrigue Masaryk Order, in 1991, and he also received high Slovak and Canadian decorations.

Bata also served as chairman of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's business and advisory committee on non-members.

His son Thomas George Bata took over the shoe company from him in 2001.

Thomas Bata was born on September 17, 1914. He died in a hospital in Toronto, just weeks before his 94th birthday.

He is survived by his wife, Sonja, his son and three daughters.