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Art Randall YN1(SS)
Born November 28th, 1932 in Pasadena, California and raised in Altadena. On his 18th birthday, he enlisted in
the Navy and applied to submarine school. Accepted, he completed the training in 1951 and was assigned to the USS Pomfret
and later to the USS Baya SS-318 stationed in San Diego. He struck for yeoman and by January, 1955, obtained his first
class stripes.
He met his wife, Peri, on a blind date in February, 1954. He was 21 and she was 18. After a six month
courtship, they were married on September 11, 1954 in Pasadena and left the next day for San Diego. We had a two day
honeymoon spent getting settled in the apartment and then he went out to sea aboard the USS Baya for a week. In February he
had served his four years and made the decision not to re-enlist and see if he could "make it in the outside world" and go
back to college.
In 1956, our first son, Art was born while Art was still in college. With his GI Bill and his
first job at Ralph's Grocery, we got by. School by day and working/studying by night, he graduated from Cal State in June,
1958. A plaque is still on the wall at the school, "Outstanding Business Student." He decided we could attempt making it
one more year and in June of 1959 he graduated with a Masters Degree from UCLA. He was recruited by IBM before graduation
and began his career in Orange County, California selling mainframe computer installations to companies including Mattel
Toy.
In April of 1960, our second son, Scott, was born and by 1963 we had saved enough money to buy our first home. In
1964, daughter Diana was born. Art was top salesman for IBM all the years in Orange County and was promoted to the main
office in Los Angeles for a year. In 1969, he was asked to accept a promotion to run an IBM subsidiary called Systems
Bureau Corporation in Philadelphia. We moved to Philadelphia in February, 1969. After 15 years with IBM, he left and worked
for Systems Development Corporation in upstate New Jersey. SBC was responsible for selling customized computer
installations to the hospital industry. With the knowledge he had now obtained in health care computer installations, he
was interviewed by McDonnell Douglas Health Information Systems to develop a sales force. He was hired as Director of Sales
and marketing and we moved to St. Louis, over 90 salespeople covering the entire United States. McDonnell Douglas was one
of the five leading companies in this field at the time. After more than 10 years with McDonnell Douglas, sold the entire
division and all 90 salespeople left to join other computer companies. They in turn called upon Art in his consulting
business to assist with sales plans, marketing, networking and the like.
Art Randall and Associates was in business from 1987 to 1997 when he decided to retire and write books including
"Baby Doe Rides Again" and "The Christian Mythology."
On a business trip to San Francisco in 1993, he stopped to take a tour of a submarine Pampanito. He picked up a
brochure on the USSVI and decided to join this group of submarine veterans. We have now come full circle back to the 18
year old kid who loved submarines. We attended our first submarine convention in Vallejo, California in 1993. Since then,
we have attended all conventions (13) while Art devoted all his spare hours as "Awards Chairman" as well as other
duties including "Central Region Director." He created patches for submarine bases as well as establishing many new bases
in his region. For his work for the United States Submarine Veterans he was awarded the "Joe Negri" award in 2005 - the
highest honor bestowed upon someone who furthered the USSVI organization. One of his contributions can be seen on
Interstate 70 near Columbia, Missouri - "This Highway Dedicated to US Submarine Veterans."
It's been a wild and wonderful ride, one in which I wouldn't trade for
anything!
Lovingly,
Peri Randall
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