Beryle Randall

Our friend Beryle Randall.

Jonna and Beryle Randall had their son on May 24th, 1964. Originally from Chicago's Hyde Park area, Beryle is a true "South Sider". Bears fan and avid White Sox fanatic, he has original seats from Comiskey Park (the original stadium for the Sox) in his VA home. Then Beryle moved to Oak Park, IL, a suburb outside Chicago during his high school years where he still has many life long friends. A competitive swimmer in high school, Beryle worked at Chicago beaches as a lifeguard during the summers. His college years were spent in central Illinois, at Illinois Wesleyan University - majored in Political Science. After spending a semester in Germany as an exchange student, he was hooked on international travel. Recently, he visited his 75th country. After college Beryle moved to Boulder, CO. He took some grad school classes and enjoyed a couple years as a ski bum, working part time as a ski instructor and ski technician. Next stop was American University in Washington DC, where he holds 2 masters degrees and continued his studies in international politics. He even became class president. 

Next, it was time to go to work for the U.S. Government, where he enjoyed an incredibly successful career spanning nearly 40 years. He initially began as a Presidential Management Fellow at NASA, before becoming a diplomat - working in a multitude of U.S. embassies, including his favorite - Papa New Guinea. He would visit nearby countries whenever possible as he moved locations. After returning to the U.S. full-time, his career spanned many governmental departments including Intelligence, Finance, Homeland Security, Training,  Commerce, Accounting, and the Inspector General's Office as well as others. He took his jobs seriously and had great passion for each, and was proud to be a servant to the American people. 

Friends of Beryle know he is all about the "themes". Rooms in his house were decorated as such, and most of us have enjoyed spending time in the Chicago room, the Native American room, the Papa New Guinea room, or even the Cowboy room for overnight guests. His outdoor Beryle's Beach was a big hit, complete with sand and a tiki bar. Of course his bedroom was known as the Drummer Room. The infamous BK Diner, complete with malt shop booths and table, as well as Coca Cola decor, has been his main dining room for many years.

Beryle's interests were many, and he enjoyed skiing, swimming, hiking, scuba diving and running for his athletic side. He can throw a frisbee on the beach with the best of them. He enjoyed collecting art and decorating his home and rental properties with it. Beryle's drums followed him to every place he lived, and he played in many bands over the years, most recently playing gigs with "The Enablerz" and "Revel Without a Cause", bands he started, directed, and was booking agent for. His love of music was always evident, with speaker systems in all the places he lived, normally playing his favorites regularly. His famous homemade bar has a plexiglass top, and under it resides hundreds of ticket stubs from concerts he attended. His last estimate was at over 1,000 attended - and he's a season ticket holder at Wolf Trap, once of his favorite venues ever. He takes great pride that his daughter Kaya plays guitar and sings, and she even wrote a song about Chicago for one of his friend's weddings and performed it there. Of course travel was one of his biggest interests, and he would study the history of places he would visit beforehand and during the visit, and could be considered somewhat of a history buff. 

Perhaps one of Beryle's greatest qualities was the love he had for his friends and family. His pride and joy is his daughter Kaya, As busy as he is, he always made time for his friends and hjs very large family. His daughter Kaya is the apple of his eye, and his role as a father was his most cherished one of all. As Beryle's friend, he cared about you, and you felt it. He wanted to be in your life regularly. He'd travel to see you. He'd invite you over for BBQ, or maybe go to a concert together. Maybe you'd talk politics. Didn't matter, whatever your connection, he'd make sure it was a connection that would keep going - with whatever effort was necessary to do that. I think we have all learned a lot from him, but how to be a friend might be his greatest lesson to all of us. 

Cheers to our friend! He'll never leave any of us. 

Beryle's family asks that in lieu of gifts, you could honor his memory with a donation to his favorite charity " Feeding America", or your local food bank.