To sum up Randy is easy for me: he is the most generous man I have ever known.
Update to this post on March 19, 2021. This from his daughter Jesse, whose husband is about to be told where the family (they have 4 kids) will be living while he does his post med-school residency as a radiologist:
“He wouldn’t have been able to do any of this if it weren’t for all the support we’ve gotten from friends and family these last few years. We want to especially thank Dad for basically being our fairy godfather through it all. He made everything happen from the pumpkin carriage to the glass slippers, from the downpayment to the updated registration card and the fixed gutter. Thank you so much Dad for everything you’ve done for us and for being there whenever we need you.
We love you all so much. I’ll let you know how it goes. See the link below if you’d like to join at 11!
Love, Jesse (& Adrian, Gracie, James, John, and Julian)“
Example 1: A few days ago, at the age of 58, he and his wife Fabiana adopted a 2 year old named Noah, who was a ward of social services in Tennessee. Randy has two daughters by a previous marriage, and they are now in their twenties. More about them later, suffice it to say I consider both of them to be extremely well adjusted human beings. Fabiana and Randy were married 12 years ago, but have been a couple much longer. About 6 years ago they decided to put their hats in the ring as foster parents. They have had custody since that time of 3 babies, 2 of which ended up back with their birth parents. Noah is the 3rd and they have had him since soon after he was born.
This is just the latest in a very long line of generous things the man has done. I of course have been on the receiving end of it myself. He and I have been friends since 1977, which is why he is the lead off in this series of posts. That makes him my 2nd oldest continuous friend (Marda Kirn being #1). Above is a picture of us and a few other folks, from 1978, when we built the little outdoorstage and provided the lighting and sound for the Rabbit Junction Dulcimer Festival in Boulder, CO. It was organized by Bonnie Carol, who is in fact my 3rd oldest continuous friend, as we met when she called me to see if I would work on her festival.
Example 2: I call it my $10,000 summer. It was a few years ago, summer of 2009. I was on my annual cross country motorcycle trip. Just south of Ottawa, Quebec I aborted a trip to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, due to 3 days of hard rain that threatened to accompany me all the way there. I was in rural West Virginia, on my way to Nashville, about 20 miles east of the Ohio river town of Ravenswood. It was a beautiful sunny July day, about 1pm, when my BMW motorcycle had a sudden, catastrophic electrical failure. I was rescued by some good Samaritan bikers and taken in their pick-up truck into town for repairs, which turned out to be impossible without special parts, and I was forced to have the bike put on a trailer and towed to Athens, Ohio.
Randy and I had been intending to spend a week or so riding together around Tennessee and possibly into the Smokies.
Instead he and Fabiana drove up to Cincinnati, Ohio and met me at the home of Randy’s best friend, Steve, and his wife Ginger. Steve had driven to Athens to rescue me. I had found out it was going to take a week or so to fly in the new $2500 wiring harness from Germany so we decided to salvage the time window of Randy’s time off and spend it in Cincinnati. When the part arrived at the dealer’s shop in Athens Randy and Fabiana drove me back over to Athens. He and I spent the next couple of days reassembling the bike which I had stripped down to the frame while waiting for Steve to arrive. When we finished, it ran but not real well. We decided to take it Nashville, and they followed me down to their home, where I spent a day tweaking various things to try to get it to run better. During this entire time, Randy and Fabiana were right there with me, staying in the motel, sharing meals, working on the bike. After a couple of days it was still running way too rich. Randy and Fabiana had work to start on now, so I decided to take the chance and make the run back to Colorado where I could work on it at my leisure at home, which I did in 2 long days.
Who he is. Calm, assured, intelligent, and very, very kind. Anytime I have needed a favor he practically jumps out of his seat to help out, and never, ever with even a hint of anything save pure, fine, altruistic demeanor. And he does that with everyone who crosses his path. Everyone. A true friend.
March 16, 2021 updates
March 16, 2021 update
Fabianna passed away at the age of 52, on March 16, 2017 at 3:16pm, it was cancer, which she fought valiantly for 2 years. Randy raises Noah, now age 7, with help from friends, esp. Tina (his partner for 2 years), and is the same amazing father that he has always been. And at the age of 63, he is now both father to Noah and grandfather to his daughters’ 5 children.