ZORMAN, IVAN (Apr. 1885-7 Aug. 1957), poet and composer, was born in Yugoslavia to John and Marie Pucichar Zorman. The family moved to the U.S. when Zorman was 4. He returned to his homeland only once, at 10, staying for a year. When he came back to the U.S., he began studying the Slovene language, attending Central Institute and St. John's College in Minnesota. He graduated from Western Reserve University with degrees in language, literature, and music. For 40 years Zorman was organist at St. Lawrence's Catholic Church. He taught organ, piano, and voice, and directed and composed for many Slovene singing societies in the Slovene language. His first 2 books of poetry went largely unnoticed in his homeland, but in 1933 Zorman became acknowledged as a legitimate writer and his poems Slovene schoolroom classics. In 1938, his 5th book of poetry, From the New World, received honorable mention in the Jugoslav University Club at HOLLENDEN HOTEL. Zorman eventually wrote 6 volumes of poetry and translated many others. Zorman was honored in May 1941 at a banquet in the Slovene Society Home in EUCLID as an outstanding poet and composer in America. Zorman married Josephine Meznarsic (d. 1936) on 22 June 1910. They had 1 child. Two years after Zorman's death, his daughter, Carmen, dedicated a memorial bust to him in the Yugoslav Cultural Garden. Zorman was buried in CALVARY CEMETERY.
Finding aid for the Ivan Zorman Papers, WRHS.