Acting CHF director Mirjana Ana-Maria Piskulić expressed her gratitude for this valuable gift on behalf of the Croatian Heritage Foundation. She said she hoped this donation would be followed by others and that it would encourage others to follow the example of professor Morović.
On Book Night, the 24th of April, the head of the CHF department of emigrant heritage Ljerka Galic accepted a valuable donation of books from the family of professor Ivan Morović. On hand for the ceremony were members of the family – son, daughter and grandchildren, guests and staffers with the CHF. Galic spoke of the intention of the donator, the purpose of the donation and the obligations taken on by the recipient of the donation. It was the wish of the late professor Morović that his personal library be donated to the Croatian Heritage Foundation. His granddaughter and donator Zrinka Kulušić read from her grandfather’s biography.
Ivan Morović was born in Igrane in 1905. He attended teacher’s college in Dubrovnik and Šibenik, and earned a degree in pedagogy, psychology, logic and Croatian at the University of Zagreb’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in 1934. During his studies he founded the Pedagogical Club at the Faculty and was its first president. In Zagreb he worked from 1937 at an experimental model school, a public school and the Napredak private secondary school. He worked as a professor at the teacher’s college, the industrial school and the teacher’s professional school. When the teacher’s schools were scrapped in 1961 he was appointed to a full professorship at the pedagogical academy in Pakrac, where he led the pedagogical department through to his retirement. In Pakrac he founded and served as the president of the chapter of the Croatian Pedagogical Literary Association for central Slavonia. For his comprehensive work he received the Diploma of the Croatian Pedagogical Literary Association.
His works include: Pleme Morović iz Igrana (The Morović Clan of Igrane, 1980), Igrane (1981) and Moje putovanje po kontinentima (My Travels on the Continents), a copy of which he dedicated and donated in 1984 to the archives of the Franciscan monastery in Makarska. He has also donated books he has written to the National and University Library in Zagreb and to the archives of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts in Zagreb.
Upon retiring in his seventies he achieved his long time desire to visit his many relatives, friends and former pupils and students in the course of two big trips to Australia, New Zealand, the United States of America and Canada.
A part of the donated material, in respect of his wishes, has been donated by the family to the Croatian Heritage Foundation and comes from these travels.
The donation includes: the Matica magazine of the Croatian Heritage Foundation, issue nos. 4/81, 5/81, 9/81, 11/81, 12/81, 1 and 2/83; Jačke-Mate Miloradić (Željezno, 1978); Hrvatska manjina u Rumunjskoj (The Croatian Minority in Romania) (group of authors, Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies, Zagreb, 1980); The Croatian Heritage Foundation Emigrant Calendar (annual editions for 1981, 1982, 1983, 1985); Yugoslavs in Louisiana by Milos M. Vujnovich (1974); Gradišćanski Hrvati 1533-1983 Zbornik (Miscellany on the Burgenland Croats 1533 to 1983) (published by the Society for Cooperation with Burgenland Croatians and Croatian Minorities in Neighbouring Countries and the Centre for Migration and Ethnic Studies, Zagreb, 1984); The Yugoslavs in America by Edward Ifkovic (Lerner Publications Co. Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1977); Pod australskim nebom (Under Australian Skies) by Luka Marković (Zagreb 1973); the Hobson County Centenary 1876–1976; Ignac Horvat by Robert Hajszan (Pinkovac, 1979); Now respected, Once Despised: Yugoslavs in New Zealand by Andrew D. Trlin (The Dunmore Press Ltd., 1979); Hrvati u životu Sjedinjenih Američkih Država (Croatians in the Life of the United States of America) by Ivan Čizmić (Globus Zagreb, 1982); Život Hrvata u Sjevernoj Americi (The Lives of Croatians in North America) by Dr Tresić (1907).
Acting CHF director Mirjana Ana-Maria Piskulić expressed her gratitude for this valuable gift on behalf of the Croatian Heritage Foundation. She said she hoped this donation would be followed by others and that it would encourage others to follow the example of professor Morović.
By: Diana Šimurina-Šoufek; Photography: Ivana Tepeš Galić
