Oliver Luebker

It is with heavy hearts that we share the passing of Oliver Lübker, aged 48, of Hartland, WI, on August 26, 2026.

Olli was born on February 14, 1978, in Rendsburg, Germany to Karen and Herbert Lübker. His mother says it was fitting that he would be born an Aquarius, or Wassermann (water man) in German, as he was drawn toward water from the very beginning.

As a baby, he loved the bathtub. As soon as he was old enough to wander, he would go down to the Schlei, a long inlet of the Baltic, to watch the boats. His bicycle eventually gave him more freedom to explore, and by the time he was ten, he was spending his time at the sailing school. He made friends there, sailing anything and everything he could and figuring out how to fix what broke along the way.

At home, he was known to memorize sailing parts catalogs with more enthusiasm than his schoolwork and, when it came time to choose his career, he became a sailmaker, of course. Olli went to school to learn the trade and picked up boat-building from friends studying across the street. If there was something to learn about sailing, boats, or materials, he found a way.

That curiosity took him out into the world, where he worked as a sailor, sailmaker, and boat captain on boats throughout Europe, competing in major regattas internationally, including an early trip to Australia for the Sydney to Hobart race. Most notably, Olli became a sailmaker for Illbruck, the winner of the 2002 Volvo Ocean Race.

While the team was training in Sanxenxo, Spain, Olli met Melissa. Together they traveled with the campaign to ports across Europe, Africa, Australasia, South America, and North America. When the Volvo Ocean Race ended, Olli returned home to Germany with Melissa. As his mother remembers it, "It was the best thing that happened to Olli and to us."

What had begun as Olli's life of sailing became, from then on, one that was shared. He and Melissa married, eventually settling in the United States, and became parents to Luca and Stella. Sailing, traveling, boats, water, sails, projects, and the endless business of fixing and building became a part of family life, too.

After moving to the United States, he joined Watertronics, where he worked in the composites department developing new products and materials. In 2004, he and Melissa started Stelluca, making bags from upcycled sails, selling sailing gear, and repairing boats. Eventually, sailing pulled him back once more, this time to Harken in Pewaukee to work on custom projects.

There was very little Olli could not do on or around a sailboat. Friends sometimes called him “MacGyver,” and the name suited him. He could spot a problem on your boat before you knew you had one, rig up a solution in the middle of a race, and then appear the next day with the part to fix it properly.

He shared that way of looking at the world with Luca and Stella, passing along a love of boats and water, curiosity about how things worked, and the conviction that most problems became more interesting once you started taking them apart.

It didn’t take him long to embrace inland sailing, particularly E Scows, and he rarely passed up a chance to race. One of his great later projects was rebuilding an SL33 foiling catamaran with his father-in-law. He launched it on Lake Michigan in 2025, a fitting project for a man who spent most of his life wondering what boats could do, and then trying to make them do a little more.

Olli had an exacting, deeply technical mind and an almost irresistible desire to improve on nearly everything he touched. He reinvented many wheels: some for the better and some just because. He was always ready to discuss the most efficient way to do something, whether you asked or not. His dry German humor kept people on their toes, and it remained with him even when life became considerably less humorous.

For three and a half years, Olli underwent treatment for cancer. He continued, whenever possible, to work with his hands and tinker with boats. "Sanding is life," he would say, swearing that it somehow cured his chemo nausea.

He was never particularly inclined to make a performance of what hurt. There was always something that needed to be worked on, something that needed fixing, or something funny to say instead. Through treatments, travel, cancer trials, and long stretches away from home, Melissa, Luca, and Stella remained at the center of the life he was trying very hard to keep living.

Olli was preceded in death by his grandmother, Anne-Louise Lübker; his uncle, Carlo Lübker; and his father-in-law, Dave Binger.

Olli is survived by his wife, Melissa Marban; his son, Luca Marban; his daughter, Stella Marban; his parents, Karen (née Matzen) and Herbert Lübker; his sister, Nina (Christian) Bösch; sisters-in-law Liz (Frank) Apiricio and Kaila (Mike) McKeough; brothers-in-law Will (Amanda) Binger, Richard Reinders III, and Charlie Reinders; parents-in-law Rick and Anne Reinders and Michele (Cliff Adams) Marban. Olli is further survived by many aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, cousins, and countless friends around the globe who will greatly miss his long stories, his breadth and depth of knowledge, and his passion for excellence.

A celebration of life will be held on Wednesday, September 9, from 4 to 8 PM at the Oconomowoc Lake Club. Visitation begins at 4, followed by a short ceremony at 5:30. In a nod to his life's passion, we're calling it his “last prizegiving.” Vintage sailing gear and flip-flops are welcome; he joked they would be the most appropriate dress code to celebrate him.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Olli's name to the Lilly Kolisko Institute, the Milwaukee Community Sailing Center, or MD Anderson Cancer Center