Roger Eugene Maras (he changed his name to Maris in 1955) was born on September 10, 1934, in Hibbing, Minnesota, a small mining town in the northeast region of the state. People once called Hibbing the “Iron Capital of the World” because of the large amounts of iron ore discovered there. Roger’s ancestors came to Hibbing in the early 1900s from Croatia, which is east of Italy across the Adriatic Sea. Around 1910, Roger’s grandfather, Steve Maras, left Croatia for the United States. Once in Hibbing, Steve worked for his brother, who had already come from Croatia, at a saloon. Steve made a life for himself and his family, which included.
