YESTERYEAR: F. Harold Van Orman, One Of Evansville’s Most Dynamic Promoters.

F. Harold Van Orman

by PAT SIDES

In 1937, when this photo was taken, Mesker Zoo had been open slightly less than a decade. The man enthusiastically pulling the two young visitors riding on the zoo’s giant tortoise is F. Harold Van Orman, one of Evansville’s most dynamic promoters.

To boost the sagging economy, the mayor had appointed Van Orman in 1932 to lead the Forward Evansville movement during the lean Depression years. Owner of a national hotel chain, which included the McCurdy Hotel, Van Orman was involved in numerous civic organizations; also active in politics, he had also served a term as Indiana’s Lieutenant Governor in the 1920s.

Van Orman’s obituary called him Evansville’s “most widely known and most colorful citizen.” He died in early 1958 at the age of 73.