John Zorack remembers everything so that his grandchildren never wonder, “What did Grandpa do?”

Grandpa did a lot.

Zorack is an 87-year-old Mote Ranch resident; a veteran of World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War; and the son of Ukrainian and Italian immigrants. He spent much of his childhood in the Myron Stratton Home — a Colorado Springs, Colo.,-based home for dependent children created by philanthropist Winfield Scott Stratton — after Zorack’s father was crushed in a mine, too crippled to care for his son.

In 1962, Zorack, then a colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps, served as a military aide to former Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield during President Richard Nixon’s inauguration.

Following his military career, Zorack became a successful lobbyist and helped to pass the Airline Deregulation Act.

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IN HIS OWN WORDS
On what former Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield said to him and how the Marines reacted to Zorack sitting in the presidential reviewing stand: “(Mansfield) was a man of very few words. He told me, ‘Tell me what to do, colonel.’ A few days later I was called into the office and my commander said, ‘What the hell were you doing in there, Zorack?’ I said, ‘Like a good Marine, I was just following orders.’”

On the key to being a successful lobbyist: “I never met a person I couldn’t like. I study people’s background before I meet them.”

On his wife of 64 years, Joanne: “She’s my partner. She’s the one who pushed me to do all this stuff.”

 

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