John Pozdro was born August 14, 1923 in Chicago, Illinois. He studied at the American Conservatory of Music. During World War II, he served with the Military Intelligence Division of the Army. After the war, Pozdro attended Northwestern University, where he received a Bachelor's degree in Music in 1948 and a Master's degree in 1949. Pozdro later studied at the Eastman School of Music and received his Ph.D. in Composition in 1958.

Pozdro's first teaching position was at the University of Northern Iowa, from 1949-1950. He joined the faculty at the University of Kansas in 1950 and remained there until his retirement in December 1992. He served as Department Chair of Theory and Composition from 1961 to 1988. He also served as the chair of the annual Symposium of Contemporary American Music at KU from 1958 to 1967.

Pozdro received several honors for both teaching and music composition, including the Bernard Find Award for Outstanding Classroom Teaching in 1961, a KU outstanding teacher in 1970, a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1976, and a citation from the American Council of Polish Cultural Arts in 1978.

John Walter Pozdro married Shirley Winans on June 12, 1954. They had two children, John Winans and Nancy (Pozdro) Tehllman. Pozdro died in 2009.