Hans Dorn

1936 - 2012

Dorn

Hans Dorn was born in 1936 in the Bavarian town of Furth . He grew up in Germany, at age 19 he moved to Australia for 5 years and then emigrated to America in 1962. He typified the good-natured Bavarian and remained a German Citizen all of his life. Behind his jovial exterior was a keen mind. With only an eighth grade education he became an astute investor and businessman. He was an, amateur boxer and ski instructor, as well as an avid tennis and soccer player. From 1964 to his retirement in 1994 Mr. Dorn worked the night shift as pipefitter for the Kroger Company in Cincinnati. His training in Germany to be a licensed plumber, pipefitter and welder enabled him to take and master this job. In 1968 he married an Indianapolis schoolteacher, Janet Huddleston, and in 1973 they had a son, Stefan. In 1992 Mr. Dorn was remarried to Alla Azarkhin, an immigrant who had been trained as an engineer at Kharkiv in the former Soviet Union. In his first years in America Mr. Dorn showed remarkable talent as an entrepreneur. Using his early training as a skier he became widely known in the area as an instructor and leader of ski excursions. In 1966 he founded the Hans Dorn Ski School at Bellefontaine, Ohio, employing forty-five ski instructors at its peak. In 1972 Mr. Dorn and two partners built an indoor tennis club in Lima, Ohio a successful business which he sold in 1986. In 1975 he and a partner, Rudolph Parzer, opened the Tyroler Ski Haus shop on Galbraith Road. Later they opened a 2nd ski shop in Bellefontaine. Both were successful for many years and then sold. In March of each year Mr. Dorn led groups of avid tristate skiers on trips to the finest ski resorts in Europe. Three times he took the skiing groups to the Canadian Rockies where they took helicopters to fly skiers to the powder snow on the upper slopes. He was a pioneer of this way of skiing. In his later years Mr. Dorn traveled extensively with his wife Alla to Tibet, Nepal, Kenya, Tanzania, India, Alaska's Kodiak Island, New Zealand and Antarctica. He also continued his career as a ski instructor in Aspen,Colorado. Mr. Dorn is survived by his wife, Alla, his son, Stefan, his daughter-in-law Melissa, his sister Marianne, brother-in-law Werner, nephew Norbert and niece Jutta in Germany. He passed away March 20, 2012. Age 76. Visitation will be at the Vitt, Stermer & Anderson Funeral Home 4619 Delhi Rd., Monday, April 2, from 11AM until time of service 1:15PM. www.andersonfuneralhomes.com