I will truly miss your smile and honesty. Even if I did not agreee with yu I knew where you stood and left that out or our conversations. You always had my respect. Will see you later.

RIP my friend.  Always had fun seeing you at all of the summer festivals.  Always smiling and enjoying life.  We will miss you!

I am so sorry to hear of Randy’s passing. He was a great man. I’ve known him since I was in grade school and he was always kind to me. Growing up through school with his daughters, I saw him often and was honored to spend time with our friend group as a guest at his home many times over the years. He always wanted to know everything about Holley’s friends. He truly cared. I’m sorry that I will not be able to attend due to work, but I wanted his family to know that he will be missed by us all. I am so sorry for your loss.

Randy interviewed me for a job at Southwestern Bell in 1981. I got the job, but never had the privilege of working for Randy. We had the connection of going to the same college, Eastern Illinois University. My late husband, Dave, worked for and with Randy for several years and always liked and respected him as a boss, colleague, and friend. RIP, Randy.

Mighty Maroon football teammate, EIU Sig Pi fraternity brother, Emge-Ellis School Board colleague, trivia partner, drinking buddy, friend for 55 years. We and so many others will miss you, Randy. Our sincere sympathy to Randy's daughters and family.

Rick and Lynne Jones

Thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.  Deeply saddened to hear about Randy's passing.  We worked together at AT&T and he was so helpful and patient with me as I learned about IT.  May you find peace and comfort in the wonderful memories you share of him.

I lived in St, Louis from August of 1977 until April of 1989 and worked in Data Systems for most of that time.  I met Randy while involved in our company softball league or while playing golf.

Randy was friendly and easy going and while we did not work together we often saw each other.

Emily and I are praying for Randy and his family during this very difficult time,

Bob & Emily Garza
Denton, Texas

So very sorry for your loss.  I was Randy’s Assistant for several year at AT&T.  He was a very nice person and made it easy to work for him.

In sympathy’

Kathy McDill

I will really miss my former golf partner and close friend.  He left us too early but now he is reunited with the love of his life, Valerie.  I still remember the day that we both just missed making two eagles but had to settle for tap in birdies.

Dear Friend & Maroon Teammate -
Hey brother, life ends many times when we least expect it in most instances.  You now have been reunited with the Lord and Valerie, THE love of your life.  Together you both now have all of eternity to be together hand in hand.  You will be missed!  Peace be with you!

Bob Flake
Teammate
BTHS West - Class of 1971

Randy promoted me from non-management to help with testing.   He was one of my best and favorite bosses.  He spent a lot of time, drawing diagrams and sharing his knowledge.  My favorite memory is the day he came into the office later than usual, stopped by my cubby and told me it was Holly's fist day of school and he had stayed home to see her get on the school bus, he was proud and sad ..  

I enjoyed working for and with him.

Becky Trehy

Our deepest sympathy to his daughters and family.  We have wonderful high school memories with Randy, in a variety of activities and sports.  Enjoyed visiting with him at high school reunions. All American guy: great friend and person. He will be greatly missed.   
Unfortunately,  we will be Out of town Saturday,  but our prayers and thoughts will be with you!  
 Sherri and Curt Gericke

Randy I will miss you - you were always great to talk with - The Commisserate Mighty Maroon - RIP, my friend

I worked with Randy right out of college.  He was my first manager at Southwestern Bell, and we found that we had both attended the same college, Eastern Illinois University.  There were 5 of us hired on the same day and we did not know what we were in for!  We wrote the billing system that was needed due to the breakup of the Bell system.  It was grueling!  12-hour days, 7 days a week for a year.  I remember campaigning to get Easter off that year and after some consideration and a promise to come back on Monday with more energy, Randy gave us a day off.  He was tough, but then again, he had us newbies to wrangle.  We got to know him pretty well during that time and he always spoke so lovingly about his wife, Valerie.  He was so very proud of his family.  I didn't see Randy too often after that first year, but when I did run into him, we always reminisced about those long days during CABS creation and implementation.   Rest easy, Randy.

My heartfelt condolences to your family in the loss of Randy.  He was one of most logical and fair managers I ever worked for and with during my time at Southwestern Bell.  It's been a while since I've seen him but will miss his spirit.  He was terrific and a good friend.

I have so many great memories of Randy.  What a great person, hard worker, smart and very dedicated husband and Dad.  I first “met” Randy around 1979 when I was on night shift in the St. Louis data center and he was a programmer on a program called “BN4”, an ordering program in Southwestern Bell’s “new” billing system being implemented first in the St. Louis center.  That system went down almost every night and I’d have to call Randy usually around 2 am to work the errors.  He was always professional and despite being  woken up in the middle of the night he was alert and usually fixed the issue quickly. Years later we were second line managers together in the billing system group where Randy ran the ordering group and I ran the tax and cash group.  We spent a lot of time together during the ATT divestiture and he was just a delight to work with.  Many years later I was asked to go back to IT and Randy worked for me doing all of the middleware systems and architecture.  He came up with some brilliant ideas that ATT’s IT shop still uses today.  He had a major impact on ATT.  He will be greatly missed.

OBITUARY

Randall Lee Hargraves

August 28, 1953 – February 24, 2024

Valhalla-Gaerdner-Holten Funeral Home & Valhalla Gardens

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