The eminent Russian theorist Corresponding Member of Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Naumovich Gribov passed away on August 13, 1997, in Budapest, after short and grave illness. V.N.Gribov was born on March 25, 1930 in Leningrad. Having graduated Leningrad University in 1952 he was forced to work as a teacher at the night school for working people. In 1954, he joined the Ioffe Physico-Technical Institute in Leningrad, and before long became the leading member of the Theory Division and one of unquestionable leaders in Soviet and the world theoretical high energy physics. Many a theorists in Russia and FSU are his pupil. Gribov's theory of threshold multiparticle reactions, the Gribov - Froissar expansion, Gribov's factorization, the Gribov - Pomeranchuk shrinkage of the diffraction cone, Gribov - McDowel symmetry, Gribov - Volkov conspiracy, Gribov - Morrison selection rules, Glauber - Gribov theory of diffraction scattering on nuclei, Gribov - Pomeranchuk - Ter-Martirosian reggeon unitarity, Gribov's reggeon calculus, Abramovski - Gribov - Kancheli (AGK) cutting rules, Gribov - Ioffe- Pomeranchuk growth of spatial scales in strong intreactions, Gribov's extended vector dominance, Gribov - Pontecorvo analysis of neutrino oscillations, Gribov's theorem for Bremsstrahlung at high energies, Gribov - Lipatov evolution equations, Gribov - Lipatov reciprocity, Gribov's vacuum copies, Frolov - Gorshkov - Gribov - Lipatov theory of Regge processes in gauge theories are jewels in the crown of modern theoretical physics. Gribov was the foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in Boston. His distinctions include the L.D.Landau medal of the Academy of Sciences of USSR, of which he was the first ever recipient, J.J.Sakurai prize of the American Physical Society, Alexander von Humboldt prize and the Badge of Honor. Since 1980 he has been a member of the L.D.Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics (Moscow) and the last decade also a Professor at the R.Etvoesh University in Budapest. Exceptionally warm and cheerful personality, who generously shared his ideas and fantastic erudition with his students and collegaues, indefatigable discussion leader V.Gribov was universaly revered in his country and elsewhere. His family, friends, colleagues and the whole of high energy physics community shall miss him dearly.