Become a Membership of the Slovenian Cultural Garden!
By Stane Kuhar
Ivan Zorman was born April 28, 1889 in Šmarje, Slovenia. In the same manner that occurred with a number of other Slovenian immigrants or families that came to the USA in his time period, Zorman and the Zorman family went back to Slovenia when he was about ten years-old after arriving in the USA at the age of four years-old.
He returned to Cleveland, Ohio where he was admitted to then Western Reserve University. He graduated with a bachelor degree (Slavic languages plus Italian and French), literature and music. He was an instructor of organ, piano, and voice for numerous Slovenian singing societies along with his "full-time" position of employment as the head organist at the Slovenian Catholic parish, St. Lawrence Parish.
The local Slovenian-American communities and neighborhoods at that time had a strong emphasis on having young children learn the Slovenian language and culture. He became more well-known for his book(s) on poetry, all in Slovenian. He also translated other books but he was largely neglected in his own native country. It was not until the early 1930s that his works were gaining traction in then "Yugoslavia" and became more known in his home country.
By 1938, Zorman had a fifth book of poetry published, under the title, "From The New World." He then received honorable mention in the Jugoslav University Club, Cleveland, Ohio at the then Hollenden Hotel. In total, Zorman wrote six (6) books of poetry as well as translating many other books. He is known to have translated a poem from his book "Their Paths Are Peace" to denote the then Yugoslav Cultural Garden but now the Slovenian Cultural Garden.
He was involved in numerous fraternal benefit societies founded by Slovenian immigrants and their families including AMLA, KSKJ, and SNPJ. He was a friend of many, clergy and lay people, especially his good friend, the late US Senator Frank J. Lausche, a then rising politician in Cleveland, Ohio who would become the first individual of Slavic and Slovenian descent as a Roman Catholic to be elected numerous times as governor of the state of Ohio and then US Senator, state of Ohio.
Zorman died on August 4, 1957 in Cleveland, Ohio due to throat cancer. He is buried in Calvary Cemetery along side his late wife Josephine (nee Meznarsic).
The original bust of Ivan Zorman at the Slovenian Cultural Garden was dedicated in 1959 via his daughter, Carmen.