Roll Call Tribute

Richard William "Dick" Randall 

July 12, 1932 - March 7, 2025 

Richard William Wickersham Randall, 92, passed away on March 7, 2025, in Houston, Texas. He was born on July 12, 1932, in San Antonio, Texas to George Orson Wickersham Randall and Frances (Steinhans) Randall. Richard, or “Dick”, as he was known, graduated from Brackenridge High School in 1950. A scholarship from the Optimist Club allowed him to attend Texas A&M University in 1950 where he studied Education-Industrial Technology, graduating in 1954.

Upon graduation, he was commissioned as a 2nd Lt into the Army Combat Engineers and served with the floating bridge company in the 338th Combat Engineer Group to support the 101st Airborne Division at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky. After being promoted to 1st Lt and completing his two years of service, he was released from active duty, whereupon he started his civilian career as an engineer at Bell Helicopter in Ft. Worth, Texas in 1956, the city in which he would meet his wife, Dorthene McDuff. Dick and Dorthene were married on June 16th, 1961, and remained married until his passing, 65 total years. Their only child, Dianne Randall, was born on March 1, 1962.

After a brief stint in St. Louis, Missouri, the family moved to Houston, Texas so Dick could work at NASA with Lockheed Martin, and later, Northrop Grumman. He was proud to have been a test project manager and test conductor for spacecraft testing and astronaut training in the Space Environment and Simulation Lab Chambers A and B at NASA Johnson Space Center for the Gemini, Apollo, and Space Shuttle missions. He served from April 1966 to January 1994, finishing his career as a senior safety operation engineer at NASA. His last test project at the Space Environment Simulation Laboratory was the Apollo/Soyuz Docking Adapter Module in 1975, one of the first ever combined space missions with Russians.

He is survived by his loving wife, Dorthene Randall, and his two grandsons, Brent Connealy and Kyle Connealy. He is preceded in death by his daughter, Dianne Connealy. He was the most kind, gentle, and loving husband, father, and grandfather any of us could have ever asked for. He will be dearly missed. The Lord blessed us through Richard Randall’s life for 92 years.

Graveside Services will be on Saturday, March 22, 2025, at 1:00 PM at Mission Park South Cemetery in San Antonio.