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| The first Tucson’s City Directory of 1881 listed two Croatian immigrants: I. Sresivich (spelled later Sresovich), a grocer on Camp Street, and Antonio Grossette, known for the rest of his Tucson life as A.V. (Anthony Vincent) Grossetta (Grošeta in Croatian). He left his original Dubrovnik in 1868 at age 12, and after several years on the sea and in California, started his humble beginnings in Tucson as a steward in Porter’s R.R. Hotel. In just a few years he rose to one of the most prominent businessman of Croatian origin in the entire Arizona between mid 1880s and early 1900s. Featured among the noteworthy residents of the nation’s youngest state in 1916, he was praised for his “tireless energy united with clear judgment and intelligently directed effort.” Grossetta left vivid footprints in the Tucson’s business and civic community. Among them: § Tucson Hardware Store on East Congress Street, a Tucson’s long time landmark § Tucson’s Opera House at 51 East Congress Street, established in 1897 |
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| § Co-founder (with Rosario Brena and Alfred S. Donau) of the Tucson Chamber of Commerce;
§ Co-founder (with Fred Ronstadt) of the Club Filarmónico Tucsonense § Member of the University of Arizona Board of Regents (1901-1902, and 1907-1912) The Grossetta Avenue in Tucson’s downtown, not far from his early beginnings in the grocery business one block east of Stone Avenue, has been named after him. He died in 1909. His extraordinary life story was retold in interviews with his two grandsons, A.V. and Warren, in the Daily Arizona Star article of March 22, 1995. Two of his four grand-grandchildren also live in Tucson. The other two prominent entrepreneurs in Tucson in the early 1880s were Luke Radulovich and John Ivancovich. Luke Radulovich, presumably from the vicinity of Dubrovnik (under Austria at that time), started a grocery business and, according to an advertisement in Tucson’s City Directory of 1883-1884, his early partnership with A.V. Grossetta. Later he found his entrepreneurial niche in plumbing, crockery and glassware retail. After his second coming to Tucson (he and his wife returned to live in “Austria” between 1906 and 1912) he became the president of the Owl Drug Store, another Tucson’s landmark on the corner of E. Congress and Sixth Avenue. He died in 1921, and with no direct descendents (not counting more than 20 nieces and nephews in California), Luke’s wife Lucy Radulovich left in her will all their fortune (worth about $100,000 in 1934) to the Salvation Army and the Sisters of St. Joseph Academy. More than 40 years later, an article in Tucson Daily Citizen on November 18, 1977 reported “a 14-cent mystery” tied to Raduloviches’ property at 56 N. Sixth Avenue. From a big rock that kept the gate shut at night, a “treasure” was spilled containing the coins, Roman Catholic religious insignia and a note dated March 19, 1919, proclaiming that the property was “buildet” by its owners, Luke and Lucy Radulovich. John Ivancovich was born in 1865 in the village of Berse?ine near Dubrovnik and after arriving in Arizona, first worked in Tombstone mines. He came to Tucson in 1884 at age 19, found employment in the store of a fellow countryman Jos Sresovich, and after only two years, he started his own fruit store in the old Congress street wedge. Within less than ten years he established one of the largest wholesale and retail grocery business in town located on East Congress Street. He also operated a bakery (“Royal bakery”) on West Congress Street. He is known as one of the early developers of East Congress Street; he built the first business house on Congress Street of solid brick, and the first that was over two stories. Three blocks on East Congress Street were known as “Ivancovich’s blocks.” According to a Tucson Citizen article of May 25, 1927, he was “one of City’s biggest real estate owners” and “one of the largest individual taxpayers in Tucson.” In addition to several functions in Tucson’s business community, he was prominent in the city’s civic life as well. He was involved in the construction of the first commercial light plant on Church Street opposite the courthouse and in the city’s first street paving project. He also served as a charter member of the Tucson Council. When he died in 1944, he was remembered as a “firm believer in Tucson’s future and … an active supporter of any improvement which would better the city.” |
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| by: Vera Pavlokavich-Koch |
| C r o a t i a |
| The Three Entrepreneurial Pioneers – Grossetta, Radulovich and Ivancovich - owned several properties on E. Congress Street including numbers 7, 15, 31-35 (Ivancovich’ block), 43-61 (Grossetta’s block), 90 and 110-112, and corner properties at Scott and Sixth Avenues. Most of these buildings were torn down giving way to more modern structures, but the Arizona Historical Society keeps several photographs that have captured the “golden age” of the Croatian real estate in Tucson’s downtown.
Croatians and Croatian-Americans in Early to Mid - 20th Century The names of Štefan and Maria Magdalena Golob (spelled also Gollob) are among the well remembered Croatian-born immigrants who came to Tucson in the 1920s and 1930s. Štefan came to Tucson from Chicago, his wife from Cleveland. She opened Vienna Café on Sixth Street near the University of Arizona, while he became successful in the real estate business. He shared his fortunes generously by donating land to several important organizations in Tucson: YMCA-OTT on 401 Prudence Road, Gale Elementary School at 666 S. Gollob Road, Beacon Foundation, Stefan Golob Park on Prudence Road south of Broadway Boulevard, and the original Palo Verde Hospital (predecessor of Tucson Medical Center). Following the restrictions imposed by the U.S. immigration law of 1924, the immigration of Croatians as well as of other Europeans, significantly declined between the two world wars. Newcomers to Tucson were mostly sons and daughters born to Croatian parents in Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois and other states. Zora Zemski, born in Cleveland, Ohio came to Tucson with her mother Maria Magdalena Golob. Zora graduated from Tucson High School and received nursing degree from the University of Arizona. She became one of the first seven nurse practitioners in El Rio Health Center in 1972. Her major contribution to Tucson was the establishment of Palo Verde Hospital on the land donated by Štefan Golob. Brothers Ivan and George Cindrich were born in Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh and moved to Tucson in the early 1960s. They owned the Villa Restaurant and the Western Tavern on North Miracle Mile and West Grant Road. Later, George built and operated the Twin Peaks bar on E. Grant. The family also owned a mobile home park. The Cindrich Street, named after the Cindrich brothers, runs near the Tucson International Airport. The Kadjan Liquor Store on the Sixth Avenue (South Tucson) was owned by three Kadjan brothers, whose parents came from Gorski Kotar, a mountainous region in Croatia. They bought the store in 1945 and operated it until late 1970s. Byron Ivancovich, son of the Tucson’s pioneer Ivan Ivancovich, was born in Tucson in 1900. He received a law degree from the University of Arizona and another degree from the Wharton College of Finance at the University of Pennsylvania. He returned to Tucson to work in his father’s real estate business. He was on the Board of the Arizona Historical Society. He left nearly all of his estate, worth $2.9 million in 1984 to charity. The beneficiaries include: St. Mary’s Hospital, Arizona Historical Society, Franciscan Fathers of Arizona (San Xavier del Bac), the University of Arizona (for music scholarships), YWCA and YMCA and Tucson Association for the Blind. (The Arizona Daily Star, January 21, 1985). Present day Entrepreneurs and Professionals About a dozen businesses are owned by the descendants of Croatian immigrants and some more recent arrivals in Tucson. These include, for example, the Orach Machine Shop Service, owned by Mike Orach whose parents, Lucy and Steve Orach came from Koprivnica in Croatia’s northern region of Podravina. The Spray Master Auto Body & Paint shop is owned by Pete Raguzin whose father was born on the island Krk in northern Adriatic. Minkus Advertising Specialists, now owned by Rubin Minkus, was established by his mother who came from Dubrovnik. Mike Popovich, a graduate of the University of Arizona in systems engineering, is the founder and president of Scientific Technologies Corporation, a leader in immunization databases used by state health agencies, according to the Arizona Daily Star’s feature article of May 23, 2003. His grandparents were born in the village of Radatovici near Karlovac and came to the United States in early 1900s. One of the newest additions to Tucson’s Croatian business community is Zoran’s Violin Shop. Its founder and owner, Zoran Stilin was born in Croatia’s capital Zagreb and received his M.A. degree in music from the University of Arizona. Zoran’s skills in musical instrument repair are recognized beyond Tucson and Arizona. He is also a rising star among instrument builders: in the Violin and Bow Makers’ Competition organized by the Violin Makers Association of Arizona International, his cello won 1st prize for the tone and 2nd prize for workmanship, his violin bow won 1st prize, and violin won 2nd prize. He is also a cellist with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra. There are several professionals in the medical community of Tucson who are of Croatian descent. For example, Tucson’s dentist Dr. Gergory Valacich traces his roots to a historical town of Bribir in northern Adriatic, his father’s birth place. Dr. Mike Maricich, is a respected specialist in internal medicine and arthritis. Formerly a professor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, he is at present with the Southern Arizona VA Medical Center. His father came from island Ugljan near Zadar in northern Dalmatia. Contributions to Education and Research In the late 1950s, the first group of young teachers of Croatian descent appeared in Tucson’s school system. Violet Tonkovic Przybyl, a graduate of Detroit Institute of Technology and Wayne State University, taught business education at Tucson High School (1959-1972) and Sabino High School (1972-1988). Her sister, Betty Tonkovic Galbo, with degrees from the University of Detroit and University of Michigan, was councilor and teacher in Palo Verde High School (1961-1963). Their parents came to the United States from Slavonska Po?ega. A contemporary of the Tonkovices sisters, Emily Slamar Strahler, who graduated from the University of Wisconsin and Colorado AM at Fort Collins, thought at Pueblo High School (1958-1965) and Roskruge Junior High (1965-1970). She established the Gridley Junior High where she taught until her retirement (1972-1986). Her parents came from Malvice and Zagreb to Kenosha, Wisconsin in the 1890’s. At present, about 20 University of Arizona faculty and academic professionals are either the descendents of Croatian immigrants or first generation-immigrants themselves. They hold various academic positions (professors of chemistry, physics, medicine, geography and other fields) as well as administrative and professional appointments (program directors, project coordinators and research specialists). The University of Arizona Professor Michael A. Cusanovich, a 5th generation Croatian from California, has been one of the highest-ranking administrators of Croatian descent in the Arizona university system. Holding a Ph.D. degree from the University of California in San Diego, he is a professor of biochemistry and chemistry and emeritus vice president of graduate studies and research. The “Michael A. Cusanovich Dissertation Fellowship in Science” has been established to award doctoral students demonstrating extraordinary creativity and /or scholarship. (http://www.biochem.arizona.edu/dept/ppl/Profiles/) His great-great-grandfather came to San Francisco on a boat loaded with Croatians from the area of Split in central Dalmatia in 1849. Contributions to Tucson’s Cultural Life From the early days, Croatian immigrants were actively involved in Tucson’s cultural life. The major contributions include: § Tucson Opera House - The pioneer A.V. Grossetta, a grocer and hardware man, erected the Tucson Opera House at 51 E. Congress Street and served as its manager into the 1900s. After the opening night on November 11, 1897 with the performance of The Mascoti by the Grau Opera Company, the Phoenix Daily Herald wrote that Grossetta’s Tucson Opera House was “a thing for the whole territory to contemplate with pride.” § Club Filarmónico Tucsonense - With Fred Ronstadt, A.V. Grossetta co-founded this 40-member club, which is considered a predecessor of contemporary Tucson Symphony Orchestra. § Classical Music - Tucson Symphony Orchestra’s principal cellist in the early 1990s was Croatian-born musician, Štefan Polgar, who returned to Zagreb to be with his wife, an accomplished musician herself. Zoran Stilin, the renowned violin and cello builder, has played cello with Tucson Symphony Orchestra since the early 1990s. He also performs with chamber orchestra and as a soloist. § Croatian Folk Music - Croatian Cultural Club performs folk dances and songs at annual Tucson Meet Yourself festivals, EMAT’s semiannual events, at local schools and churches. § Tucson-based International Radio Program - Since 1982, Dan Babich broadcasts multinational radio program devoted to all ethic groups in Tucson and Arizona. Dan’s parents came from Croatia’s mountain region Lika (village Lovinac). He has been collector of folk music all his life and brings great joy particularly to the oldtimers with his selections from the “stari kraj.” His program is on the air on Saturdays and Sundays from 11:00 am to 12:00 (noon) on KSAZ, 580 AM. Croatians in Tucson’s Sports Life Over the last fifty years, about a dozen second and third generation Croatian-Americans participated in the University of Arizona athletics program. Andrew Rumic was on the football team in the 1960s, while Nancy Tomich was the leading female golfer in the early 1980s. Dr. Robert Svob served as the assistant director of athletics, and later became the dean of students. Dr. Mary Pavlich Roby, whose parents came to the United States between 1906 and 1908 from small villages Kuna and Brodnice in the hills above Dubrovnik, has left a lasting impact on the University of Arizona women’s athletics. She served as the first director of Women’s Athletics (1972-1982) and after that as the associate director of Athletics-Sports Programs until her retirement in 1989. Among a long list of awards and honors that she received for her work, is the induction in Sports Hall of Fame in 1989, National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) Hall of Fame in 1995, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Collegiate Women Athletic Administrators in 1999. The “Mary Roby Academic Achievement Award” was established to honor academic achievement of student-athletes. |
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