Clients, co-workers mourn Elburn veterinarian

Co-workers will miss his booming laugh.

Patients will miss his gentle touch, and their owners, his compassion and understanding.

Veterinarian John Gmitro of Elburn, who worked since 1998 at the St. Charles Veterinary Clinic, died Monday in a car crash in southwestern Wisconsin.

Gmitro was eastbound on Interstate 90/94, returning home from a Minnesota vacation. His car crossed a 75-foot-wide grassy ditch median, then hit the rear of a westbound truck. He died of head injuries caused by the accident, according to the Sauk County coroner.

Gmitro was driving alone, and was wearing a seat belt, according to Michael Marquardt, accident reconstruction specialist for the Wisconsin State Patrol. The truck driver was not injured.

Gmitro, 44, was born in Minnesota and raised in the Northwest suburbs. He graduated from the University of Illinois veterinary school in 1994, then worked for awhile in Minnesota.

"He knew exactly what my dogs needed, and he knew exactly what I needed," said Diane Chandler of Maple Park, who brought her Afghan hounds to Gmitro for care. She enjoyed hearing him think out loud through diagnosis and treatment decisions. And he immediately put her animals at ease; "they were happy to see him," she said. "He was so careful with their emotional comfort. He never wanted them to be stressed by anything."

Gmitro was especially interested in helping animals during their "senior citizen" years.

"He had a great gift of knowing how to help an animal live with dignity, and help clients make tough choices," said Marty Strauss, manager of the practice.

She said he was soft-spoken and reserved with clients, but had a larger-than-life personality that came out behind the scenes.

"It's so quiet around here without him," Strauss said.

He loved sled-pulling dogs, such as malamutes and huskies, and was considering taking a leave to work as a veterinarian at the Iditarod dog-sled raced in Alaska. But he owned a cat named Ruger.

Professionally, Gmitro was proud of one particular ability that left the other vets in the practice a little jealous: His knack for diagnosing an uncommon and often fatal fungal disease, blastomycosis, in dogs, long before there were laboratory tests available for it. People whose dogs were saved from it were among Gmitro's most loyal clients, said Heather Buhlig, a veterinary technician.

"He worried not just while he was in the room with them (his patients), but after they left," she said.

And he understood people's reluctance to let go of their animals. He had a sense of when they were finally ready for him to suggest it was time to cease treatment, she said.

"He was absolutely a lovely human being," Chandler said.

Gmitro was the son of the late John Gmitro, former president of the Arlington Heights District 214 school board, and Nancy. He is survived by his mother; and brothers Todd, of Naperville, and Mark, of Greenville, S.C.

Clinic employees will meet next week to discuss memorial plans. Information will be posted on its Web site, stcharlesvetclinic.vetsuite.com.