Professor Vlado Simko Passed Away

Vlado Simko, M.D., served on the Board of the American Fund for Czechoslovak Relief and as a BBLA trustee for reconstruction of the historic Bohemian National Hall. Professor of Clinical Medicine at State University New York, Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn.

Dr. Simko was born in 1931 in Bratislava, former Czechoslovakia. After medical and research training and after obtaining boards in internal medicine and clinical chemistry he became research investigator and head of Laboratory Department at the Research institute for Human Nutrition in Bratislava. Here he earned a C.Sc. (Ph.D.) for research on metabolic effects of heated fat in food. In addition to teaching the graduate students he participated in research on diets for man in space. Since 1982 Dr. Simko was the chief of the Section of Gastroenterology at the Brooklyn VA Medical Center. He actively joined several Czechoslovak exile organizations, publishing numerous socio-political essays in Slovak democratic exile periodical “Nase snahy” and in other journals. He was the past vice president of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU) and organized the biomedical symposia at the world congresses of SVU where he regularly reported on his research. Vlado Simko pledged a grant to BBLA and BBLA’s Study Center/Library, in memory of his first wife Mary and his son Daniel.

He was the president of the Czech and Slovak Solidarity Council, an organization supporting the Prague based Comenius Academic Club. Professor Vlado Simko passed away in Bratislava on April 21, 2026. We express our sincere condolences to his wife, Mrs. Milena Simko. Vlado shall be greatly missed by many.