- Noreen O'Leary

MIAMI Andy Vladimir, a onetime Madison Avenue adman in the mid-1960s who went on to become a well-known name in South Florida, died at his Coconut Grove home of muscular dystrophy on Dec. 15 at age 76.
 
A native of Scarsdale, N.Y., Vladimir went to work for his father Irwin Vladimir, a New York adman, after graduating from Yale, where he helped start the university's first television station. After the stint at Gotham Vladimir Advertising, the young ad exec set up his own agency, Vladimir International in Puerto Rico.

Vladimir also worked in New York as international vp at Norman Craig & Kummel in 1965, handling accounts like Colgate-Palmolive, Hertz, Maidenform and Chanel. He moved on to Kenyon & Eckhardt in Mexico City before setting up Vladimir and Evans Advertising and PR in Miami in 1968. The agency, in business until 1976, counted Royal Castle hamburger restaurants, Hialeah Race Track, Florida Power & Light and The Miami Herald among it clients. He went on to establish Sharp, Hartwig & Vladimir in Seattle before becoming Bermuda's director of tourism and then a travel agent, consultant and author.
 
At the time of his death, Vladimir was an associate professor emeritus at Florida International University's School of Hospitality and Tourism Management.

Ute Carey Vladimir, his wife of 20 years with whom he had a daughter, was quoted as saying her husband only recently became ill from MD: "He was diagnosed 25 years ago, but it never disabled him until last week," she told The Miami Herald in an obituary published this week.
 
Andy Vladimir was also married to his first wife, TV personality Sally Jessy Raphael, with whom he had two daughters, and later to Donna Vladimir Gross, mother of three of his children.
 
The family suggests donations to Shake-a-Leg, a disabled sailing charity, at 2600 South Bayshore Dr., Miami, Fla. 33133, or the Muscular Dystrophy Association, 300 East Sunrise Dr., Tucson, Ariz. 85718.