Peter John (Pat) Zondervan   [1909-1993]

Peter Zondervan, known as Pat Zondervan, was the major co-founder of Zondervan Corporation, of Grand Rapids, Michigan, one of the nation’s largest publishers of religious books, including bibles. The other co-founder of Zondervan Corporation was Bernard Zondervan, Pat’s brother. Pat Zondervan was the older brother, and it was probably his idea, to go into the religious book business. Pat went to work for his uncle, William B. Eerdmans, in 1924, when he was only 15 years old. Willliam B. Eerdmans was another religious book seller and publisher, also of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Pat worked for his uncle for 7 years, and then approached his uncle about obtaining a share of the business. That request apparently took his uncle by surprise, clearly annoyed him, and he fired Pat on the spot. Eerdman clearly did not want to share his business with his ambitious and upstart nephew.

Pat Zondervan then talked his brother Bernard [Bernie] into going into the religious book selling business. Pat and Bernie decided to sell religious books from a low cost rental location, their mother’s residence, located in Grandville, Michigan, near Grand Rapids. So in 1931, the two brothers traveled to New York City, and visited a number of book wholesalers, and managed to pick up an inventory of books, largely consisting of remainder books, and bought them at very low distress prices. They took their book inventory back to Grandville, and began their sales by calling on book stores, schools and colleges in the Grand Rapids area. The following year, in 1932, their business had outgrown the allocated space at their mother’s house, and they rented store space in Grand Rapids, and opened their first religious book store there.

The religious book selling business prospered, and in 1932, they decided to also go into the publishing business. They discovered a promising Dutch language book entitled, “Women of the Bible”, by Abraham Kuyper, the famous Dutch theologian and politician, who served as prime minister of the Netherlands, in the early 1900’s. The copyright on the book had run out, and all they had to do was to get someone to translate it, and they felt they would have a best seller, at least to their Dutch American clients in the western Michigan area. They found a theology student who was willing to translate the book for $50. Since the Dutch language version was rather long, they decided to break up the book into two volumes. In 1933, they published the first volume, entitled, “Women of the Old Testament”, and in 1934, they published the second volume, entitled, “Women of the New Testament”. Both volumes had successful sales, and their business venture had become a book seller as well as a book publisher.

Zondervan’s publishing activities remained successful. It grew steadily over the years, and in 1944, Zondervan published 58 titles. In 1946, following the end of the Second World War, the publishing activities exploded to a total number of 154 published titles for that year. During that same year 350,000 books, and 250,000 booklets were printed. Also at that time, 365 authors were on the royalty rolls. By 1947, Zondervan’s work force had grown to 90 employees.

In 1959, Zondervan expanded through external means by buying an inspirational music company, and in 1966, the company bought the Bible division of Harper and Row. A sad event occurred in that same year. The younger founder of Zondervan, Bernard Zondervan, succumbed of cancer, at the rather young age of only 56. So from that point on Pat Zondervan became the sole manager of the firm. During the early 1970’s, Zondervan, jointly with the International Bible Society, published the New Testament volume of the “New International Version”, [NIV], of the Bible. In 1978, the company published the entire version, consisting of both the old and new testaments, of the NIV. Since Zondervan had the copyright to the NIV, it became a very successful project, because the NIV became very popular with many religious denominations.

By 1976, Zondervan had become a public company, and its shares were listed on the NASDAQ Exchange. Following the listing, some accounting irregularities created a number of problems for the firm. The problems were eventually resolved, and the company continued to expand and grow. In 1988, Zondervan was acquired by Harper Collins, for about $ 50 million, and its remaining founder Pat Zondervan, who then was 79 years old, retired from the company. Zondervan continued to prosper, and by 1991 it had reached an annual volume of $175 million, and had a backlist of about 1000 titles.

Peter, or Pat, Zondervan was born in Paterson, New Jersey, on April 2, 1909. Shortly after his birth, his family moved to South Dakota, where Pat’s brother, Bernard Zondervan, was born. Shortly after Bernard’s birth the family moved to Grandville, Michigan. When the children were still quite young, their parents divorced, and the mother, Petronella, later married Louis Zondervan, from Grandville, Michigan. Louis Zondervan adopted Petronella’s children, and that’s how both Pat and Bernard went by the Zondervan names, although they had been born with another family name. Peter Zondervan passed away in May of 1993, while he was living in Boca Raton, Florida. His survivors were his wife Mary, his daughter, Mary B., and his sons Robert and William.

 

REFERENCES

Zondervan Corporation, http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Zondervan-Corporation-Company-History.html

Zondervan, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zondervan

The House of Zondervan, by James E. Ruark and Ted Engstrom, Zondervan Publishing, 1981, 2006

 

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