Title: Future students can study Poland's past
Author: Staff Writer
Publisher: Poland Neighbors
Date: 5/14/2010
Thanks to a big donation, students at Poland schools can learn the history of their town.
The daughters of superintendent Robert L. Zorn, Debbie Becherer and Pattie Kelley, have donated their father's latest book, "Images of America, Poland" to area schools.
Bercherer donated a classroom set of the books to the Poland Middle School social studies department and Kelley donated two books to every school library.
"We are very grateful to have this new set of Dr. Zorn's latest book. A previous contributor gave us a set of his earlier book "Triumph and Tradition," said eighth-grade Social Studies teacher Nick Blanch. "This is the time of year that we do a unit on local history, so we are most appreciative of their generous donation."
"This is another great way to teach our children an appreciation of the past. These books are a tangible way of preserving our local heritage," added Karen Russo, Poland Middle School librarian.
All the proceeds from the sale of this book will benefit the Poland Historical Society.
Title: Schools' chief compiles book on village history
Author: Denise Dick
Publisher: vindy.com
Date: 4/24/2010
Electric trolley cars used to run through the village.
In 1917, an Ohio Bell telephone truck would travel from Youngstown to serve the 12 telephones in Poland.
A Water Street home, built as a tailor shop in 1876, housed the town's first Singer sewing machine.
Those are just a few of the tidbits of Poland history contained in a book by Robert L. Zorn. The book is part of the Images of America series by Arcadia Publishing, with offices in Charleston, S.C., Chicago and San Francisco.
Zorn, Poland schools superintendent, has written 12 books including three on the history of Poland schools, but this one happened kind of by accident.
"I was in Barnes & Noble, and they have a section of Arcadia books," Zorn said. "I thought, 'I'll get one on Poland as a gift for my wife.'"
There wasn't one.
"I saw one on Hudson, Kent, Austintown, Hubbard, Struthers," he said.
He asked the clerk, who said they didn't have one of the books on Poland. He later checked with the publisher to find out if one was in the works. None was.
A publisher's representative asked if he was interested in writing one and compiling all of the photographs. He resisted initially but eventually decided to do it.
"It took me about a year," Zorn said.
He searched through boxes of photographs at the Poland Historical Society and asked everyone he knew to borrow old photos.
"You have to have 200 original photos," Zorn said. "They have to be chronological, and they have to tell a story."
His wife, Joan, and two daughters, Debbie Becher and Patricia Kelley, joined the effort.
They spent many weekends looking through the old pictures for those that would fit the needs of the project.
The publishing company turns down photos it doesn't deem acceptable because of quality or other problems.
Zorn, who majored in history at Kent State University, says he enjoyed the effort.
"I learned there used to be a trolley that came to Poland," Zorn said. "I didn't know that before."
The book is available for $21.99 from booksellers, and Zorn will be at a book signing at 2 p.m. today at Barnes & Noble, Boardman-Poland Road, Boardman.
All author royalties from book sales will go to the Poland Historical Society. Zorn isn't making anything from the book.
"I think it's great," Joan Madej, historical society president, said of Zorn's book. "There's a lot of interesting old photos in it."
The society hasn't determined a specific project for which to allocate the book's proceeds. There's exterior work needed on the society's building, the Little Red Schoolhouse, that it may be used for.
Zorn opted to do the book so more people could share the community's rich history, a town where President William McKinley attended school and educator William Holmes McGuffey taught school.
"I didn't want that to be lost," he said.
