Vlad Grubac

Vlad, a man of practicality, would likely want an uncomplicated obituary of plain facts. So, here: He was a loving father, brother, friend and husband. He was a respected and accomplished engineer. He showed a lot of empathy and compassion privately and publicly had little tolerance for idiocy.

There, an efficient summary. A plan to proceed with. This is as much as anybody needs to know.

Yet anybody that knew him will tell you: This minimum viable product is insufficient. What of his accomplishments? What of his character? In truth, even the most thoroughly-engineered obituary would fail to capture the man sufficiently. His practicality belied a profound depth that very few were privy to.

Among those few were his wife, Lisa; his son, Daniel; and his daughter, Mia. These three are such critical components to Vlad’s design that it’s impossible to imagine the man without them.

For his first seven years Vlad spent the majority of his early life with his grandparents, Dušan and Anka in Goražde while his parents Zaga and Luka worked and his mother completed her engineering studies. At age 6 he became a big brother when his sister Vedrana arrived.

His senior year of high school, he decided he wanted to travel to the United States as an exchange student to improve his English. He arrived stateside in 1991. The Shaver family of Sigourney, IA welcomed Vlad into their home and family so he could study.

Three months after his arrival in the United States, war broke out in Yugoslavia and Vlad was unable to return home. With the help of the Shaver family, Vlad secured a scholarship at the University of Northern Iowa, where he got his bachelors in Engineering in 1995.

Vlad committed his talents to the field of medical engineering, where he made several notable contributions. If you ever have anything surgically inserted into your heart, there’s a good chance Vlad knew all about the device, how it worked and had strong opinions on how to make it even better.

Vlad and Lisa welcomed their son Daniel into the world in 2005 and their daughter Mia, in 2007 and raised them in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. He would show them how to make something from nothing, how to work on household and yard projects, ways to repair things and how to maintain integrity in your work.

He literally touched the hearts of thousands, but it’s the few hearts he touched figuratively that he was most proud of. Despite designing devices that save lives, Vlad would say his biggest accomplishments are his children.

Private family services will be held.