[2] His father was a Hungarian émigré who later served in the Ohio House of Representatives during World War II.

[6] Drafted into the United States Army during World War II, he served in the 51st Field Artillery Battalion of the 6th Infantry Division and saw battle in both the Philippines and South Korea.

[11] Pokorny declined to run for re-election to the Ohio House in 1960, instead seeking to challenge Democratic incumbent Frank S. Day for Cuyahoga County Recorder.

Instead, in January 1961 Pokorny took a position as administrative assistant to Ohio House Minority Leader James A. Lantz.

[17] Pokorny declined to run for re-election in 1964, instead seeking to challenge incumbent Cuyahoga County Recorder Mark McElory.

[18] However, in June, State Senator Joseph W. Bartunek resigned from office to run for a judgeship of on the Cuyahoga County Probate Court.

State Representative Anthony F. Novak resigned from Ohio House to run for Bartunek's seat.

On June 22, 1964, the Supreme Court held Ohio's method for apportioning representatives (but not state senators) to be in violation of the Constitution per the decision in Reynolds v.

[23] Elections under the new apportionment scheme were first held in November 1966, for terms to begin per the Ohio constitution on the first day in January 1967.

[27] Democrats had won just 37 of the 99 seats in the Ohio House, and Pokorny immediately launched a bid to be elected Minority Leader.

[29] On January 10, 1968, Cuyahoga County Commissioner Henry Speeth (a Democrat) died at the age of 60 from a heart attack.

[30] Under state law, Speeth's political party was empowered to choose his successor to fill the remainder of his term.

[39] Corrigan easily won re-election on November 7, 1972, beating Republican challenger Nicholas Daria by a wide margin (246,868 to 66,661).

Prosecutors alleged that Pokorny had owned stock in Personal Transportation, Inc., a school bus company which won a county busing contract that lasted from 1971 to 1975.

The grand jury declined to indict Pokorny for accepting kickbacks from an architect who sought a county job.

[45] In February 1980, he resigned from the United Labor Agency and took a job as a realtor and announced he would run for Cuyahoga County Commissioner.

[47] In 1982, Pokorny ran for Cuyahoga County Auditor, and lost the Democratic primary to incumbent Tim McCormack by 3,000 votes.

[32][50] His son, Thomas J. Pokorny, became a lawyer and served for many years as a judge on the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas.