Jan 31, 2007 - 18:56:48 CST
Friends and family of Bob Randall remembered him Wednesday as a caring man as well as the father of Bismarck-Mandan birding.Randall died Tuesday in a Bismarck hospital. He was 91.
“Bob was one of those rare people who always was aware of everyone around him. He would make sure everyone was comfortable, and he didn’t get caught up in all of his achievements. He was concerned about everybody,” friend and Mandan birder Clark Talkington said Wednesday.
“I grew up birding with Dad. I had a great exposure to wildlife,” said his son, Bob Randall Jr., of Minneapolis. “We did a lot of camping trips and a lot of outdoor things and admired the beauty of God’s creations. He was so attuned to that. He was so knowledgeable and so eager to share his knowledge and to see things that we pass by everyday.”
“He was one of the first serious birders in North Dakota, one of the people in the new era of birding who we all looked to when we all started. More than that he was a Renaissance man. It wasn’t just birds, but he was into geology and plants. He was a well rounded individual as far as all of the sciences. He was a collector of all sorts of things,” said Ron Martin, a friend and birder from Sawyer.
“My impressions of Bob are two-fold: He always was a walking encyclopedia, and he had a great curiosity all the time about everything,” said Bismarck birder Dan Svingen. “The other is how gracious he always was.”
Funeral services are set for 11 a.m. Monday at the First Presbyterian Church in Bismarck, 214 E. Thayer Ave.
“We birded together for many years and our two families did a lot of camping together. He got me more interested in birding. I was interested in birding before I knew him, but he kindled my interest a lot more,” said Ken Johnson, a retired physician and author of “85 Years Birding, Adventures and Learning.”
Brandon Mason, who lived next door to Randall as a teenager, remembers his gentle nature.
“Mr. Randall really had an influence on a lot of people’s lives. He was extremely intelligent. He was always willing to listen and willing to teach if you wanted to be taught, but he was never one to force his ideas on you,” said Mason.
“Mr. Randall was a birder to the utmost extent. I’m not even in the category,” he added.
When Randall moved into the Waterford, an assisted living facility, he was thinking about selling the house he had had built in 1948 and lived in ever since, Mason said.
“He had a hard time justifying selling it,” said Mason, who had married about that same time. “He really helped us out in buying it.”
“He was very knowledgeable about North Dakota birds,” said Corey Ellingson, president of the Bismarck-Mandan BIrd Club that Randall was instrumental in founding in 1953. “He was very friendly and easy to talk to. Everybody enjoyed visiting with him. He was very knowledgeable about everything you wanted to talk about.”
Randall started the Bismarck-Mandan Christmas Bird Count in 1948, and he compiled the records of counters’ sightings and sent them to Audubon for 59 years.
“At Christmas time, he would call me up to count my birds out here,” said Florian Goldmann, who has feeders in Mandan. Goldmann and Randall birded together “and we used to square dance, too,” Goldmann added.
Randall was born Oct. 26, 1915, in Georgetown, Colo., where he grew up and attended elementary school.
“He began birding as a teenager, and people were always saying, 'What's wrong with that kid?’” said Talkington, who knew and birded with Randall for more than a dozen years and recently began helping him with the CBC compilations.
He is survived by his son, Bob Randall Jr., daughter-in-law, Joni, and granddaughters Kelly, Casey and Lauren. He was preceded in death by his wife, Sue, and son, Daniel.
Randall also was active in the Central Dakota Gem and Mineral Society and served as treasurer for the Rock Mountain Federation of Mineralogical Societies. He also was a member of the North Dakota Paleontological Society.
Although a man of multiple and varied interests, Randall was best known for his vast knowledge of birds and birding.
“We always looked to him. He was one of the few people who was birding in the ‘40s and ‘50s, one of few people who had a historical perspective. Not many people we knew had that perspective,” said Martin. “He was careful, meticulous about things. He was an example to everyone. He was greatly respected by all birders in the state.”
“I first met him as a teenager when came down to do the Christmas Bird Count. He went out of his way to make me feel very welcome and his equal, which I certainly was not,” said Svingen. “It was a great demeanor to emulate . He was a great conversationalist and valued other people’s insights.
“He was always trying to figure out why. He kept that curiosity up to the end. I saw him three weeks ago, and he was curious about how many bird species were in the area, what was increasing or decreasing, any habitat changes and their impacts and other factors,” Svingen added.
Randall made the first recorded sighting of a house finch in North Dakota. It was in 1979, he said in a 1998 Tribune interview.
“I saw that bird right here in my back yard,” he said. “I had to go to the book to make sure I was right. It was a female.”
Randall also spent at least 50 years birding the Tesoro Refinery property in Mandan.
“He kept tabs on all of the birds, and he worked hand and hand with Game and Fish,” said Talkington.
“When he started, there were hardly any Canada geese in our area and probably North Dakota. He kept track of those geese, counted them and helped band them. He would go out in his canoe where they were nesting and check how many young there were and how many made it. Now there are geese everywhere, and he helped make that happen.”
Talkington has taken over the refinery birding role now.
“It was something in the later part of his life that he enjoyed doing. I do too,” he said.
Randall and his wife, Sue, moved to Bismarck in 1948. He supervised U.S. Fish and WIldlife Service water projects for Dakotas and retired in 1973.
Randall attended Colorado State College of Agriculture and Mechanical Arts — now Colorado State University —and received a degree in forestry. After working for several state and federal agencies in Colorado, he enlisted during World War II.
He served with the Army Corps of Engineers at Churchill in northern Manitoba and in the China-Burma-India theater. After his discharge, he joined the USFWS.
Randall also was remembered for his decency and his courtesy.
“If someone was spouting off about stuff, he would not correct them, even though I think Bob knew they were wrong. He was very polite,” said Johnson.
“I never heard that guy say a bad word about anything. He was never critical of anyone. He was such a nice person. You’d think he would have to have some comment like we all do and say something about someone of something. If he didn’t agree, he had a way of dealing with it in his own terms,” said Talkington.
“When I went to visit him, I saw him treat my little girls the same way he treated me 35 years ago. He always made them feel special and welcome,” said Svingen.
“He was one of the best human beings I have ever met,” said Mason.
(Reach outdoor writer Richard Hinton at 701-250-8256 or richard.hinton@bismarcktribune.com.)
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