Ivan Matić was born in Privlaka by Vinkovci in 1937. He graduated high school in Vinkovci, and the Law Faculty in Zagreb. From 1966 he was a trainee in the railways (Ž T P) in Zagreb, and after a year, took over matters of running the legal and general affairs department in the then work unit of Zagreb-Borongaj. Thirty years later he was head of human resources in ŽTP in Zagreb. From 1975 to 1977 he worked outside ŽTP, to which he returned in 1977. From then until 1982 he looked after legal affairs in ŽTP-Invest, whence he was transferred to the then Zagreb Centar Municipality, in which until 1990 he was secretary for general administration and the budget. After this period of office expired he went back to HR in Croatian Railways. In 1991 the Croatian Railway Museum was founded, and he took over the job of manager of this museum. With dedicated work he devised the museum activity in the museum and harmonised it with the enactments that govern museum work; he set up an internal system for the classification of the library collection and photo collection, and worked vigorously collecting and studying musealia, particularly of rolling stock and locomotives. He also worked on the study of museum material connected with the historical development of the railway system in Croatia and put the manuscript material holdings in order. With his consistent work, he created the basic preconditions for the development of the Croatian Railway Museum. He retired in 2001.

NB. Data taken from the questionnaire, material taken from the Personnel Archives of the MDC, and from an interview recorded on April 25, 2007.