Bruce Leon Randall

Bruce Leon Randall, 83 (12/25/1933 -- 11/6/2017) died of massive and almost instantaneous heart failure this past Sunday evening while sitting at the kitchen table of his Tulsa home at Oklahoma Methodist Manor. Despite the rapid and focused work of Tulsa's first responders, and notwithstanding the excellent care from hospital emergency staff, Bruce was basically "gone" before he ever "arrived" at St. John's Hospital. Each of his two sons held his hand as he breathed his last at 4:00AM the following morning of Monday, Nov. 6th. It was obvious to them that Dad had already chosen a different destination... a heavenly one ....and that his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ would be the one holding his hand from now on. Born on Christmas Day, 1933 (yes... there was frequent and sometimes nauseating presumption of date-related deity), Bruce entered earthly life as the youngest of 3 sons of Loyal Cone Randall and Bertha Miller Randall in Enid, Oklahoma, delivered by his namesake, "Dr. Bruce". Bruce was preceded in death by both parents and both his brothers, Claude Clinton Randall and L. C. "Chuck" Randall, Jr. Throughout his life, Bruce managed to remain resistant to the multi-generational pox of oilfield vocational callings surrounding him, first suffered by his father (Driller, E. W. Marlin) and Uncle Ira (Toolpusher), then infecting brother Chuck (Baker Oil Tools), and later spreading to both of Bruce's petroleum engineer sons. The malady has even been diagnosed as extending to a successive 4th generation of Randall's. "MASSIVE HEART FAILURE". To those who knew Bruce, this particular cause of death poses a sad irony, one describing the exact opposite of how he lived his life. Bruce's 'massive heart' never failed in devotion to the love of his life, his surviving wife of 64 years, Geraldine ("Gerry") Hardy Randall. She returned that devotion as the consummate helpmate. Gerry stole the focus of both Bruce's eye and his heart while, barely past their teen years, they both worked at the Oklahoma State Health Dept. That dual heart-eye focus never wavered throughout Bruce's subsequent service in the U.S. Army, and later throughout a highly successful (with the awards to prove it) career in sales and sales management, culminating with his 28-year tenure at the J.D. Young Co. of Tulsa. Gerry always dutifully ...and sometimes magically... made the budgets and checkbooks balance to service not only their own needs, but usually the needs of others, even when it required stacks of Sunday World coupons to do so. Perhaps it was the hyperactivity of Bruce's massive (and usually humor-filled) heart that blurred otherwise clear (and often dogmatic) vision. Normal and obvious distinctions often got lost. His vast customer base simply became his "friends". "Needs" and "wants" of his family were addressed with the same prompt efficacy. Gerry's vast clan (she's the 7th of 10 Hardy children) was embraced as his own. The above-referenced spoilage was never more demonstrated than when lavished upon Bruce and Gerry's 2 sons, Bruce Loyal Randall and Bradford Glenn Randall, both also of Tulsa. Whether purchasing each's cars (and all the gas to go in them) or each's Petroleum Engineering degrees from the University of Tulsa (READ: 1.78 tons of coupons), full payment was always immediately remitted, never by the boy's borrowing, but from Bruce's hard work and Gerry's precise stewardship. 'Notwithstanding, Brucian 'blurred vision' seemed always to prevail. When the Randall boys brought home their wives (Bruce's Jeanann Stuart and Brad's Susan Christina Pelt) the girls discovered they could immediately and permanently drop their in-tow hyphenations. That is, Bruce embraced them not as "Daughters-In-Law", but simply as "Daughters". When the girls thought all pinnacles of spoiling love must be exhausted, Bruce raised the bar even higher upon his 'Daughters' presenting him 3 Grandsons: Jeanann's Joseph Bruce and James Lee, and Susan's Joshua Bradford Randall. Bruce's lavish embrace of his Grandsons apparently required an alias, for when as an infant GS#1 uttered the name "Papa" (pronounced "Paw-Paw"), the moniker stuck thenceforth. 'Massive' hyperactive, heart-induced blurred vision, and its commensurate incapacity for distinction, was never more apparent and Brucian than when Gerry's niece, Tammy J. (Douglas) DeVault lost both parents at an early age. To Bruce, the solution was simple: Tammy simply went from 'Niece' to 'Daughter'. After Bruce gave her away at her wedding, Tammy later presented him with the family's only 'Grand-Daughters' (finally!), Kayla and Katelyn, the former later bearing even 'Great Grand-Daughters', Aspen and Remington. Has there ever been a more accurate modeling of the Christian doctrine of Adoption? As I, the eldest son who bears his name, write my Dad's Obituary, I can think of none. I only pray that we as the remaining Randall family (both 'natural' and 'adopted'), may all soon suffer from the same vision complexities accompanying like-'massive' hearts. We will be celebrating Bruce Leon Randall's own eternal adoption and now, eternal rest, by and with his Heavenly Father at a Memorial Service to be held at Methodist Manor's Fleming Center, 4134 E. 31st Street, Tulsa, Oklahoma 74135 at 2:00PM this Saturday, November 11th, 2017. Bruce & Gerry's beloved Pastor, Dub Ambrose, will be presiding. In lieu of flowers, the Randall family requests your consideration of gifts in Bruce's honor to either of the following: � Christ for Humanity -- 6314 E 13th St, Tulsa, OK 74112 (918) 836-2424 http://www.christforhumanity.com/ � Oklahoma Methodist Manor's Employee Fund -- 4134 E. 31st Street, Tulsa, Oklahoma 74135 (918) 743-2565 http://www.ommtulsa.org/

Bruce Leon Randall

December 25, 1933 - November 6, 2017