Ovidiu G. Ardeleanu

Ovidiu G. Ardeleanu (July 17, 1956 - December 17, 2024)

Age 68 of Shoreview

It is with a heavy heart that we announce the death of our beloved husband and father, Ovidiu Ardeleanu. Ovidiu passed away unexpectedly in his home on December 17, 2024. He touched so many people's lives as a spouse, parent, friend, and doctor. He is sorely missed.

Ovidiu was born in Romania. He immigrated with his wife and son to Canada in 1986 and then moved to the U.S. in 1991. After moving around the country, they finally settled down in Minnesota in 1995, partially because of a job opportunity and partially because the weather was similar to their home country. They may be the first family ever to move to Minnesota for the weather.

Ovidiu worked as a doctor for HealthPartners for 26 years. He retired in 2021 and enjoyed a quiet life throughout his retirement.

Ovidiu will be remembered for his devotion to caring for others. Ovidiu was a man of integrity, with a robust sense of right and wrong, and he always wanted to be right, much to the chagrin of his wife and children who could never win an argument once he set his mind to something. But all joking aside, Ovidiu cared about doing the right thing, which often meant helping others when he could. Nothing made him prouder than knowing that he could provide for his family and give his children the best chance in life that he could. And he worked through exhaustion to make that happen. We would say he worked tirelessly, but that doesn't cover it. Because, after working a 16-hour shift and coming home exhausted from the hospital, he would get right back up the next day and do it again, knowing that this was how he could take care of his family. On the rare day when he only had to work an 8-5 shift, with no urgent care assignment that evening, he would cheerfully call that a vacation day. Even in his last few years, when his health was declining, he always said that he could die happy knowing that he had taken care of his family.

Ovidiu was an excellent doctor, beloved by so many of his patients. On many occasions he went above and beyond his job duties, paying for patients' medications when they could not afford them, or driving patients to the emergency room himself when they could not afford the cost of an ambulance. He was also a jokester, with a quick wit and sharp tongue. He loved to laugh and to tease. Ovidiu would team up with his daughter when she was in elementary school to pull some sort of prank on April Fool's Day each year. Sometimes, when he would annoy his wife, she would jokingly say, "Who on earth would marry you?" To which he would respond with a wink, "Well you did, and now you're stuck." He had a great sense of humor that would sometimes catch people off guard if they weren't expecting it.

Although he loved to laugh and would not have wanted his family to make as much of a "fuss" as we are making now, we are, of course, taking time to mourn. We mourn his death but also the things that he will miss that he would've liked to see. We mourn that he will not get to see his daughter graduate from her PhD program, which meant so much to him. We mourn that he will not get to celebrate when his son's novel is published in the future. We mourn the time lost that we would have wanted to be with him. Perhaps most importantly, we mourn that he never got to watch the Vikings win a Super Bowl and he never found out the winner of the most recent season of the Great British Baking Show. He really enjoyed that show. But we hope that he will be able to see all of these things from his heavenly home. We ask for your prayers during this difficult time.

Ovidiu is survived by his wife of 45 years, Irinel; children, Emanuel (44) and Katherine (32); siblings, Marius-Nicolae and Lorena; and stepmother, Elena.

His Funeral Service will take place at 11am on Monday, December 23rd at Bradshaw, 4600 Greenhaven Drive, White Bear Lake, with visitation beginning at 10am. The service will be followed by a light luncheon. Internment to follow at 1pm at Incarnation Cemetery. All are welcome who knew him or were touched by his life.

Ovidiu's service live stream