Randy Siegel
1951-01-13 2024-10-19
Tribute
Life is not a race but rather a journey to be savored. And savor he did!
Randy Siegel passed away unexpectedly in Walnut Creek, California on October 19, 2024, after complications from a ruptured appendix. His wife, daughter, and sister were at his side. He was 73 years old.
Randy was born in Knoxville, Tennessee on January 13, 1951 to Steve and Harriet Siegel, ex-pat New Yorkers. Steve’s work with the Atomic Energy Commission lead the family to move several times across the country, with stints in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and Detroit, Michigan. Eventually they migrated to the San Francisco Bay area and settled in San Jose. That’s where Randy spent most of his childhood with his brother and two sisters.
"Marching to the beat of his own drum" could have been coined just for Randy. He began building his fortune with a newspaper route in Fremont, earning the coveted giant Sugar Daddy pop, more valuable than his wages. As a teen, he had a rebellious streak that drove his parents mildly crazy. He liked to remind them that they only knew 10% of his teen-aged stunts. In 1969, he graduated from Willow Glen High in San Jose and started college in Santa Barbara.
His curiosity about natural processes guided him to his career as a geochemist and hydrogeologist. Randy's early exposure to chemistry consisted of visits to his Dad's lab under Glenn Seaborg at Lawrence-Livermore, where he watched liquid nitrogen form indoor clouds, used a Geiger counter, and played with liquid mercury.
Randy left college to work in Israel, becoming proficient in Hebrew, and eventually making his way through the Middle East, India, Nepal, and Tibet, to the consternation of his mother. There, he was undeterred by signs warning “no law enforcement, enter at your own risk”, and ended by coasting down miles of winding Himalayan roads on his motor scooter after his brakes gave out. His early travels were cut short when he served in the Army and was sent to Korea to guard the demarcation line.
Upon Randy’s army discharge in 1978, he earned his B.S. in Geology from UC Berkeley in 1980, and M.Sc. in Geology from University of Arizona in 1983. As a grad student, he ran the radiocarbon lab under the founders of the lab, the late Professors Austin Long and Paul Damon.
Randy was quiet about his considerable career accomplishments, occasionally sharing snapshots of his more exciting work. For one of his first jobs out of college, he floated through the Grand Canyon on a zodiac raft, investigating the potential for fossilized waters to be impacted by the Moab uranium mill tailings pile. His work assessing environmental contamination, designing remediation projects, and modeling groundwater flow regimes took him all over the world, including the Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup in Alaska, as well as jobs in Hawaii, numerous sites throughout Europe, and Saipan. As a Senior Editor for the Journal of Groundwater, Randy spent his free time working tirelessly with authors to clean up their work for publication.
While he loved the travel, he would have said the best job reward was meeting the love of his life, Andrea, whom he married in 1991. They exchanged vows in Las Vegas at an Elvis chapel, which they revisited on big anniversaries over the years. Their life together was filled with travel throughout California, the US and Europe. Randy showed Andrea the desert, and Andrea showed Randy the mountains.
Their jobs as geologists enabled them to live for three years in Germany in Andrea's hometown of Frankfurt, where Randy became a cherished member of her family. It is during this time that his love affair with German sausages began, a passion that stayed with him throughout his life. He once called them “equivalent to the modern-day miracle of penicillin, only greasier.” Their house, filled with minerals and trinkets from their travels, is also adorned with Randy's collection of sausage miniatures.
Work brought them back to the US where they settled in Bellevue, Washington in 1997, before returning to the Bay Area for good in 2003. Wherever they lived, they hosted a steady stream of visiting family and friends, and both were fabulous tour guides. They loved to entertain, no reservation needed. Randy often greeted visitors with a big smile, his hands busy stirring a bowl of homemade hummus.
The joy and fulfillment Randy found in being a husband was surpassed only by becoming a father. His face always lit up when he talked about Kate, from the moment she was born in 2000. He adored watching her grow up and found joy in working on science projects, traveling or watching the Big Bang Theory with her. He was especially proud as she went off to Cornell and graduated with honors, despite surviving two years in Covid lockdown.
After his retirement in 2013, Randy invested his extensive free time in his two greatest hobbies: trading on the stock market, and working in the yard. Last year, he and Andrea converted their lawn to a drought-tolerant garden, and Randy considered applying to become a Master Gardener.
A curiosity-driven adventurer to his core, he also developed an early and enduring passion for astronomy – from his dad pulling off the road for the family to experience the dark night sky at Big Sur, to staying up late as a kindergartner to watch for Sputnik as it passed overhead. Having studied geology under Alvarez, he became fascinated by the mass extinction event at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary. In 2019, he was thrilled to travel to Chicxulub, the site of the asteroid’s impact crater in the Yucatan Peninsula. Other astronomic highlights were trips to Oregon in 2017 and a family trip to Texas in 2024 to view total solar eclipses.
Always the iconoclast, Randy nevertheless strongly identified with his Jewish heritage. He and Andrea would make latkes from scratch at Chanukah, showing up at his mother's house with all the ingredients and fryer. He was a staunch supporter of Israel.
Randy could make anyone laugh and often did. Most everyone who knew him bears a nickname he bestowed. He could mercilessly tease, and just as easily laugh at himself. His post-retirement LinkedIn resume reads: "Loafing. Lunch prep, daily belly-flop to couch, focused napping." He was a perfect mimic of late-night TV promoters and could also reproduce various regional accents, and even sounds made by inanimate objects. Randy had a big heart and was very generous, even though he tried to hide it. He lived life on his own terms, always true to himself. What he loved most in this life was his wife and daughter.
Randy is survived by wife Andrea Steinbach, daughter Kate Siegel, brother Jerry Siegel, and sister Marjorie Siegel, as well as many beloved family members. He is preceded in death by parents Steve and Harriet Siegel, sister Karen Casey, and father-in-law Hans Steinbach. He will be dearly missed.
Donations in Randy’s memory to the Lick Observatory on Mt. Hamilton in lieu of flowers are appreciated.
https://give.ucsc.edu/campaigns/53679/donations/new
Life is not a race but rather a journey to be savored. And savor he did!
Randy Siegel passed away unexpectedly in Walnut Creek, California on October 19, 2024, after complications from a ruptured appendix. His wife, daughter, and sister were at his side. He was 73 years old.
Randy was born in Knoxville, Tennessee on January 13, 1951 to Steve and Harriet Siegel, ex-pat New Yorkers. Steve’s work with the Atomic Energy Commission lead the family to move several times across the country, with stints in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and Detroit, Michigan. Eventually they migrated to the San Francisco Bay area and settled in San Jose. That’s where Randy spent most of his childhood with his brother and two sisters.
"Marching to the beat of his own drum" could have been coined just for Randy. He began building his fortune with a newspaper route in Fremont, earning the coveted giant Sugar Daddy pop, more valuable than his wages. As a teen, he had a rebellious streak that drove his parents mildly crazy. He liked to remind them that they only knew 10% of his teen-aged stunts. In 1969, he graduated from Willow Glen High in San Jose and started college in Santa Barbara.
His curiosity about natural processes guided him to his career as a geochemist and hydrogeologist. Randy's early exposure to chemistry consisted of visits to his Dad's lab under Glenn Seaborg at Lawrence-Livermore, where he watched liquid nitrogen form indoor clouds, used a Geiger counter, and played with liquid mercury.
Randy left college to work in Israel, becoming proficient in Hebrew, and eventually making his way through the Middle East, India, Nepal, and Tibet, to the consternation of his mother. There, he was undeterred by signs warning “no law enforcement, enter at your own risk”, and ended by coasting down miles of winding Himalayan roads on his motor scooter after his brakes gave out. His early travels were cut short when he served in the Army and was sent to Korea to guard the demarcation line.
Upon Randy’s army discharge in 1978, he earned his B.S. in Geology from UC Berkeley in 1980, and M.Sc. in Geology from University of Arizona in 1983. As a grad student, he ran the radiocarbon lab under the founders of the lab, the late Professors Austin Long and Paul Damon.
Randy was quiet about his considerable career accomplishments, occasionally sharing snapshots of his more exciting work. For one of his first jobs out of college, he floated through the Grand Canyon on a zodiac raft, investigating the potential for fossilized waters to be impacted by the Moab uranium mill tailings pile. His work assessing environmental contamination, designing remediation projects, and modeling groundwater flow regimes took him all over the world, including the Exxon Valdez oil spill cleanup in Alaska, as well as jobs in Hawaii, numerous sites throughout Europe, and Saipan. As a Senior Editor for the Journal of Groundwater, Randy spent his free time working tirelessly with authors to clean up their work for publication.
While he loved the travel, he would have said the best job reward was meeting the love of his life, Andrea, whom he married in 1991. They exchanged vows in Las Vegas at an Elvis chapel, which they revisited on big anniversaries over the years. Their life together was filled with travel throughout California, the US and Europe. Randy showed Andrea the desert, and Andrea showed Randy the mountains.
Their jobs as geologists enabled them to live for three years in Germany in Andrea's hometown of Frankfurt, where Randy became a cherished member of her family. It is during this time that his love affair with German sausages began, a passion that stayed with him throughout his life. He once called them “equivalent to the modern-day miracle of penicillin, only greasier.” Their house, filled with minerals and trinkets from their travels, is also adorned with Randy's collection of sausage miniatures.
Work brought them back to the US where they settled in Bellevue, Washington in 1997, before returning to the Bay Area for good in 2003. Wherever they lived, they hosted a steady stream of visiting family and friends, and both were fabulous tour guides. They loved to entertain, no reservation needed. Randy often greeted visitors with a big smile, his hands busy stirring a bowl of homemade hummus.
The joy and fulfillment Randy found in being a husband was surpassed only by becoming a father. His face always lit up when he talked about Kate, from the moment she was born in 2000. He adored watching her grow up and found joy in working on science projects, traveling or watching the Big Bang Theory with her. He was especially proud as she went off to Cornell and graduated with honors, despite surviving two years in Covid lockdown.
After his retirement in 2013, Randy invested his extensive free time in his two greatest hobbies: trading on the stock market, and working in the yard. Last year, he and Andrea converted their lawn to a drought-tolerant garden, and Randy considered applying to become a Master Gardener.
A curiosity-driven adventurer to his core, he also developed an early and enduring passion for astronomy – from his dad pulling off the road for the family to experience the dark night sky at Big Sur, to staying up late as a kindergartner to watch for Sputnik as it passed overhead. Having studied geology under Alvarez, he became fascinated by the mass extinction event at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary. In 2019, he was thrilled to travel to Chicxulub, the site of the asteroid’s impact crater in the Yucatan Peninsula. Other astronomic highlights were trips to Oregon in 2017 and a family trip to Texas in 2024 to view total solar eclipses.
Always the iconoclast, Randy nevertheless strongly identified with his Jewish heritage. He and Andrea would make latkes from scratch at Chanukah, showing up at his mother's house with all the ingredients and fryer. He was a staunch supporter of Israel.
Randy could make anyone laugh and often did. Most everyone who knew him bears a nickname he bestowed. He could mercilessly tease, and just as easily laugh at himself. His post-retirement LinkedIn resume reads: "Loafing. Lunch prep, daily belly-flop to couch, focused napping." He was a perfect mimic of late-night TV promoters and could also reproduce various regional accents, and even sounds made by inanimate objects. Randy had a big heart and was very generous, even though he tried to hide it. He lived life on his own terms, always true to himself. What he loved most in this life was his wife and daughter.
Randy is survived by wife Andrea Steinbach, daughter Kate Siegel, brother Jerry Siegel, and sister Marjorie Siegel, as well as many beloved family members. He is preceded in death by parents Steve and Harriet Siegel, sister Karen Casey, and father-in-law Hans Steinbach. He will be dearly missed.
Donations in Randy’s memory to the Lick Observatory on Mt. Hamilton in lieu of flowers are appreciated.
https://give.ucsc.edu/campaigns/53679/donations/new