Andrew Stanislaw Loba

Andrew “Andrzej” Stanislaw Loba, 63, died Wednesday, April 18, 2018 at Via Christi, St. Francis Hospital in Kansas, during heart surgery.

He leaves his wife Sherry, his daughters Aga and Ewa and their spouses Mark and Ben, his grandson Samuel Andrzej, and the daughters’ mother Danusia. He also leaves behind his brother Jerzy with his family and many other family members and friends in the U.S. and Europe.

Andrew was born on August 25, 1954 to Dr. Jeremi and Anna (Sarnowska) Loba in Łodz, Poland where he spent his childhood.

At that time, Poland was a communist country. Thanks to his parents, their circle of friends, his older brother, and other members of the extended family, Andrew enjoyed a happy and wondrous childhood with a great education filled with intellectual discussions, inspiring his passion for history, art, politics, and geography, as well as a love of languages. He enjoyed interesting and adventurous travels with his family. They enjoyed vacations in many places, but the most significant for the Loba family is on the Baltic Sea in Jastarnia, where the family spent every summer for over three generations.

His adventurous nature carried on into adulthood, when he chose to attend the University of Moscow in Russia, one of the best technical institutes in Eastern Europe. He graduated having earned a master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering.

His curiosity, combined with confines of the communist system led him, together with his then wife and their two little daughters, to leave Poland as political refugees in November of 1981, which was the month prior to the Polish government establishing Martial Law.

Their journey began by spending a year in Austria before moving to and settling in the United States. Their life in the “New World” began in upstate New York, followed by multiple moves, influenced by career advancement. They moved to Kentucky, where he attended post graduate Business Administration courses at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. He then moved to Mississippi, Kansas and Nevada, before finally settling for an extended time in California to raise and educate his daughters. During that time, he spent two years working in Germany.

In 2004, he divorced and relocated to Louisiana, then to Missouri, Indiana, and Kansas. During that time, he met his second wife Sherry, in 2005 and they later married on May 31, 2014.

Andrew was a true “Renaissance man”. He was an engineer by trade, cultured, worldly, full of brilliance, grace, integrity and a zest for life.

He taught us so much; we loved sharing and experiencing his passions of history, music, politics, wine, and gardening. We admired his knowledge and ability to communicate in five languages.

In his earlier life, Andrew was a competitive swimmer, attaining great success. His passion for competitive sports led him to become a fan of soccer and ice hockey. He became an Anaheim Ducks fan, much to his daughter’s delight.

Above all, Andrew was kind and caring to his family and all those he met. He also had a contagious sense of humor. He was witty and charming and had a way of making you feel so important and significant when you had his attention.

Despite the challenges of being a first generation immigrant, he never gave up on providing a better life for his family. He kept searching for a better opportunity; he was a true believer of the “American Dream”. Through his determination and charisma, he achieved considerable success throughout his life, both on professional and personal levels.

He was, and always will be, deeply loved and forever missed by his family and friends.

A private memorial service will be held in California for family members and close friends.