Obituary: Steve Griak, Minneapolis advertising great, dies at 85

For decades, every young creative hotshot in the Minneapolis advertising world wanted Steve Griak to shoot their commercials.

It wasn't just for his directorial skills, which were considerable. It was because Griak saw the good in everything.

"He made everybody feel so good," said Lee Lynch, founder of the Carmichael Lynch ad agency. "No matter how bad an idea somebody brought him, he'd say, 'That has potential.' And you felt so good that Steve felt it had potential."

Griak and his business partner, Dick Wilson, founded Wilson-Griak, which became the Twin Cities' largest and most well-regarded production house. As the Minneapolis advertising business took on a national profile, Griak was at the storyboard and behind the camera for many of its best campaigns.

Griak, of Minneapolis, died Oct. 23 of heart problems and complications following a stroke. He was 85.

Griak got his start during the "Mad Men" era of the 1950s. But he never got caught up in the wild living of the time, said his son Charlie.

"He worked hard, but after dinner he would either sit with me and teach me to draw, or take me to the park and throw batting practice until it was dark," Charlie Griak said. "He took a ton of time to play with me and all the kids in our neighborhood. It's been amazing to hear how much he meant to them."

"He wouldn't necessarily focus on the kid on the baseball team with the most talent," Mike Griak said. "It was the kid who maybe didn't have a dad around. On the set, he was in charge. But he gave as much attention to the low guy on the totem pole as to the ad agency rep who hired him."

A native of Duluth, Griak graduated from Morgan Park High School in that city and then from the Walker Art School in Minneapolis. After Army service during the Korean War, he joined Campbell Mithun, then the largest ad agency in the Twin Cities.

His wife of 52 years, Mary Jane, recalled when he left to start his own business.

"We had two children, but I wasn't nervous," she said. "I just said, 'Oh, well, you guys will be fine.' So they got an office, and people gave them furniture — and it all worked out, didn't it?"

Griak took up skiing before it was a mainstream sport, and he and his wife first got acquainted on ski trips with other ad agency people. Later, Griak did some of his best-remembered work for the town of Steamboat Springs, Colo., helping to put it on the map as a skiing destination.

"From the time I was very young, I knew that what my dad did at work was a special thing," she said. "So I spent many a day answering the phone or doing anything I could to be part of the special place he created. I put nuts on the brownies, I took script notes — I did anything I could. He was the kind of guy you wanted to make proud."

In addition to his wife and children, Griak is survived by two grandchildren; a sister, Dolly; and a brother, Roy, who was a longtime track and cross-country coach at the University of Minnesota.

Services will be held Friday, Oct. 31, at noon at Mount Olivet Lutheran Church, 5025 Knox Av. S., Minneapolis, with visitation at 11 a.m.

John Reinan • 612-673-7402