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The Miami Herald

By Elinor J. Brecher, The Miami Herald

Dec. 18--If you ever pumped Chevron gas, drove a Nash, typed on an Underwood, drank Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, flew TWA, scoured with Ajax, let Hertz put you in the driver's seat or dreamed you were a toreador (firefighter, streetcar passenger, Venus de Milo) in your Maidenform bra, Andy Vladimir touched your life.

As a Madison Avenue publicity and ad man, Vladimir helped create and sell some of the best-known commercials and print advertisements of the 1950s and '60s. Among the clients of Vladimir and Evans, his Miami agency from 1968-76: Royal Castle hamburger restaurants, Burdines, Hialeah Race Track, Florida Power & Light, and The Miami Herald. Later, he became Bermuda's top tourism official, a travel agent, a consultant and an author -- of text books, handbooks and, for Ryder, a guide to truck stops.

Vladimir, who had muscular dystrophy, died at his Coconut Grove home Dec. 15. He was 76 and an associate professor emeritus at Florida International University's School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. "He was diagnosed [with MD] 25 years ago but it never disabled him until last week," said Ute Carey Vladimir, his wife of 20 years.

His books include Hospitality Today: An Introduction, with Rocco M. Angelo; Selling the Sea: An Inside Look at the Cruise Industry, with retired Carnival Cruise Lines executive Bob Dickinson; and The Complete Travel Marketing Handbook: 37 Industry Experts Share Their Secrets.

"Andy always jumped at a challenge," said Angelo, who met Vladimir in 1962 when Angelo was working for a new Loew's hotel in San Juan and Vladimir handled the hotel's ads and public relations.

They teamed up again in the 1980s at FIU, where Angelo is the hospitality management school's associate dean.

To their book, Vladimir brought a "breezy" writing style and cruise-industry expertise, Angelo said. In the classroom, "his enthusiasm and excitement never changed, even when he reached the point of being confined to a wheelchair. . . . I never saw Andy down because of it."

A SYNERGIZER

"He was a creative genius," said daughter Jennifer Shashaty of Rochester, N.Y. "He was very good at synergizing," for example, offering coupons at Royal Castle for other clients' products. She said that his favorite campaign was "Stronger Than Dirt" for Ajax -- the name he gave several family cats.

Raised Jewish in Scarsdale, N.Y., the son of New York ad man Irwin Vladimir, he graduated from Connecticut's prestigious Hotchkiss School, then Yale in 1954, where he helped start the university's first television station, said Donna Vladimir Gross of Houston, to whom he was married from 1965-1986. They had three children. He also had two daughters with television personality Sally Jessy Raphael, his first wife.

Vladimir studied at Trinity College in Ireland, the Harvard Business School and FIU, where he met Ute, and earned a master's in 1987.

He worked in Mexico and Seattle, in addition to Puerto Rico, New York, Miami and Bermuda. Along the way, he became a Christian and served on the church council at Coral Gables Congregational Church.

Gross described Vladimir as "kind of a showman. . . . He liked to move around a lot. His biggest thrill was traveling."

"He always wanted to go and do and have fun and see everything," she said. "He wanted bigger and better things."

EARLY CAREER

Vladimir first worked for his father, then went to Puerto Rico, where he founded the agency Vladimir International. He spent six years on the island, punctuated by stints in New York.

As International Vice President of Norman Craig & Kummel, a top Madison Avenue agency, in 1965, his accounts included Colgate Palmolive, Hertz, Maidenform and Chanel. He worked in Mexico City for the Kenyon & Eckhardt agency before settling in Coral Gables and establishing Vladimir and Evans Advertising and Public Relations.

Although the firm prospered and won awards, Vladimir didn't like Miami's quality of life, so he sold out and moved his family to Seattle. He was involved in travel and tourism for eight years, founded the Sharp, Hartwig & Vladimir agency -- accounts included Frango chocolates -- then became Bermuda's director of tourism.

"He liked it and was good at the job," Gross said, but got caught in a political crossfire; some members of Parliament didn't want an American in such a visible post.

The family left two years into a three-year contract after someone lobbed Molotov cocktails into their home, setting it on fire. They returned to South Florida, where Vladimir taught until 1997 and became active with Shake-a-Leg, the disabled sailing program.

SURVIVORS

In addition to his wife Ute and daughter Jennifer, he is survived by his mother, 102-year-old Geraldine Vladimir and his sister, Violet Rolett of New Hampshire, daughter Andrea Vladimir, sons Tom and Alex, and two stepdaughters.

Daughter Allison Vladimir died in 1992.

A celebration of life is planned for 1 p.m. Thursday at Coral Gables Congregational Church, 3010 De Soto Blvd. The family suggests donations to Shake-a-Leg, 2600 S. Bayshore Dr., Miami, FL 33133, or the Muscular Dystrophy Association, 300 E. Sunrise Dr., Tucson, AZ 85718.

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