I just accidentally found Randy's obit. today. I am a former college and seminary classmate. Randy greatly encouraged me in my first year in college and I met him later on, when he was the chaplain at Meridian Village in Glen Carbon, IL. What a tremendous pastor and friend.
Rev. Darwin Schrader
Lebanon,IL
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I recently reconnected with Don Bucknam, former COO and the publisher I replaced at The Republic in Columbus. Don is about to turn 89 and I turned 80 in May. The text exchange brought warm and quirky memories of Randall. He was a brilliant and hard working newspaper man, with a style that could be overwhelming at times, but he had a way of always leaving me smiling after some hot business disagreement. I miss him and our talks.
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2015, Zionsville, IN, USA
A sleepover at the Staggs
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Dear Randall and Patrice, save me a place at the euchre table with Bill. True love never dies.
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Randall and I were on a fishing trip in Montana to a remote location where he had once been. We spent the day fishing and returned to have a drink at the bar of a small lodge. The bartender ask if we had bear spray with us because they had been having a lot of trouble with bears where we had been fishing. Of course we did not so we just laughed and cheered our glasses!
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I cherish the memories of having met Randall and Patrice while on a Cruise with my beloved late wife, Trudi.
My thoughts are with Patrice.
Having learned Randall was a Balloon Pilot, I hope to honor his memory this Autumn at the Festival in Albuquerque.
Blessings and wishes for strength with her health challenges are offered to Patrice.
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Missing you all the time, Randall. Best wishes to his family and friends.
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I met Randall one evening as he was landing his hot air balloon. That encounter started a lifelong friendship. We disagreed on politics and religion, however our friendship was stronger than those disagreements. Randall taught me to fly hot air balloons and I eventually bought one so that we could fly together. There are many stories about those adventures, however one that always comes to mind was the Long Jump that we completed one winter. Normally balloons are flow just a few hundred feet above the ground. However on this day, we loaded the balloon down with fuel in Sedalia and climbed to 10,000 ft where we had a jet stream wind speed of 100 mph. Since we were moving at the same speed as the wind, there was no wind in our face yet we were making 100 mph across the ground. We landed north of St Louis and waited several hours for our ground crew to catch up and retrieve us. Being in a small basket almost 2 miles in the sky was truly an experience that I will never forget. I think about the adventures that Randall and I shared often and will always miss him.
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Uncle Don came out to visit us in Framingham during my 1st marriage and before kids. So that’s at least 40 years ago, 1983. We put on this great steak dinner to impress him! He ate about 1/2 his meal and said, “ok, I’m done, let’s go see Randy”. Uncle Don couldn’t wait to get done and go see him!!!!
We met Randy at a restaurant/ bar in Wellesley MA. Randy had a business suit on with “bow tie” talking with coworkers . When he saw us he stopped what he was doing flagged us over and introduced us! We ended up having a great evening!! Randy, Randy, Randy!
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Think of you often, Randall. So grateful that you were in my life, and I miss being able to share more experiences with you. I miss your humor and intelligence and I am always amazed at all you accomplished in such a short time. So sorry you left us too soon.
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I have so many stories with Randall that it is hard to choose one. We were on a float trip with our boys while sitting around the campfire one evening. Randall always wore a vest filled with everything you can imagine. We were looking up at the stars trying to pick out the different constellations when I said it would be nice to have one of those things that show where they are at. Low and behold Randall pulls one out of his vest! I started laughing so hard that I started coughing. The next thing Randall pulls out of his vest were cough drops! Unbelievable. Many great times together.
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Missing you on this special day.
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