Randall R. Stoy

I first met Randy while working for the Border Patrol in 1986. Randy was chasing a suspected illegal alien across a football field and asked on the radio for someone to cut the guy off. I was able to get ahead of them and hid in some bushes and waited for the suspect to run by. A short while later I could hear someone running my way and peeked out to see it was the suspect. Once the suspect got close enough, I charged out of the bushes as fast as I could and drove my shoulder into the suspect pushing him back about fifteen feet when all of a sudden, we both flipped head over heels with me landing on the suspect in a pile. The suspect started cussing me in perfect English and telling me with the most vile of language to get the (expletive, expletive, expletive) off of him. Upon hearing the English-speaking voice, I was shocked and immediately saw my self headed to internal affairs for tackling a private citizen and not a suspect. That’s when I noticed two scrawny green sleeve clad arms protruding out from under the suspect grabbing at me. That’s when I realized that when I tackled the suspect, I drove him into Randy and we both landed on top of Randy. Between deep gulps of air from chasing the suspect across the football field, Randy continued to curse me for knocking the suspect into him. After I secured the suspect, I pulled Randy up off the ground and looked him over to make sure nothing was broken. We then started to walk the suspect back to Randy’s patrol vehicle. Randy was no longer cursing me but I could tell he was still angry with me for running him over. I then saw Randy fish a crumpled pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. He pulled out a cigarette but it was broken. Randy then told me that all the cigarettes were broken due to my “testosterone laden recklessness”. He then told me If I had stayed out of things, he would have caught the suspect and that he was about to lay the “hands of justice” on the suspect when I interceded. That really set me off and I told Randy he couldn’t catch a cold standing in zero degrees weather wearing nothing but a wet hat, wet underwear and wet socks. We both stopped and looked at each other for a moment or two and we both laughed sheepishly. I then reached into my pocket and pulled out my near full pack of cigarettes and tossed them to Randy and told him that since I busted his smokes, I guessed that I owed him a pack. Randy told me “that’s right pal, you busted my cigarettes so I am rightfully going to claim yours”. I then told Randy, “well I also busted my ass to catch your suspect, does that mean I get to Rightfully claim your ass”. He then pulled two cigarettes out of the pack and tossed me back my pack of cigarettes and told me “how about you get to keep your smokes and I get to keep my ass”. We laughed all the way back across the football field. From that day on until 2006 when I transferred to Arizona, Randy and I were thick as thieves. We were like Heckle and Jeckle. Randy referred to me as the testosterone laden risk taker. I referred to Randy as the Brainiac Aristocrat. We always picked the same shift and unit to work on. We always rode together or worked in cooperation on everything. Above all we always watched each other’s back on and off duty. Early on we spent our days off together working on his house or his lawn or at the lake drinking, boating and pondering our lot in life. I never had an older brother until I met Randy. He taught me so much about living in the minute and seeing and enjoying life for what it realistically was and not what I wished for life to be. He always said when it comes to life expect to get out of it only what you put into it and you will not be disappointed. He taught me that “we were the luck ones, we were chosen by God to be free Americans, living in America at the peak of the greatest part of American history and that we didn’t even have to contribute what those that came before us had to suffer and endure so we could enjoy what we have”. Randy could exhibit the diplomacy and statesmanship of a diplomat or a politician but as necessary could be fearless, hard as nails and as mean and scrappy as a junkyard dog when the situation called for it. Randy was gifted with a realistic view of life that was the basis for his pointed and provocative sense of humor and unrivaled whit. Randy was also sincere, kind and civil. He loved the arts, music of all types and he loved to read novels about the history of the world during various periods. At work throughout our careers, we survived several volatile, difficult and dangerous scrapes that could have ended badly for us but as Randy would always say “with your testosterone laden risk-taking carcass and my superior intellect we could conquer the world, besides we are the good guys, good always triumphs over evil”. I will always reflect on our friendship and the many good times we shared, joking, drinking, discussing and arguing over history, or on the water boating and listening to music. I remember some of our best times we spent together were sitting on the water at Elephant Bute lake as the sun was setting looking out over miles and miles of placid water. Each of us with a drink in one hand and a Dagwood sandwich in the other. We were content with life, happy as clams living in that moment. Not a care in the world, that is until I would reach across and slap one of his size 13, badly sunburned red feet and he would howl like a banshee and start cursing me and vividly explaining the various torturous ways he would extract his revenge on me. Ultimately, he would catch me off guard and shove me overboard while traveling on the water at bout 30 miles an hour and watch me roll and bounce off the water until my trunks fell off and I went under. Then he would circle me in the boat two or three times letting me tire out before letting me back into the boat. I spoke to Randy on the phone for almost an hour in August. We rehashed old times, politics, old friends and future plans. He was looking forward to several cruises he and Ronna had planned once the Covid ban was lifted. At the end of our conversation, I told Randy that we had let way too much time and space come between us. I told him that we had been through a lot together, that I considered him my brother, that as I always pointed out to him, he was the best man at my wedding and I was the only man at his wedding. I told Randy that I missed him being present in my life and that I loved him. Randy responded in mutual kind and agreed that we would meet for lunch and of course drinks as soon as the Covid fiasco was sorted out. Unfortunately, it was not to be. My sincerest prayers and condolences to Randy’s parents Robert and Sybil, you raised an honest and decent, hardworking and most honorable, brave and loveable son. To his sisters Kathy and Connie and his brothers Rod and John. Randy always spoke of how lucky he was to have the unconditional love his family showed him and each other. You were what grounded him to reality. He loved each of you and his extended family beyond words. He always told me that he risked his life doing what he did in the military and in law enforcement so that no one in his family would ever be forced to do it. The entire Stoy family served to raise a true Patriot and a Hero who will be mourned by thousands of his other brothers and sisters in and beyond the Border Patrol. Randy was not a mountain of a man but his persona was larger than life. Thank you for sharing Randy with all of us and the cause of justice. My Prayers and deepest condolences also go out to Ronna. You chose to spend your life enjoying the shared varied interests in music, travel and history with Randy. Randy loved you deeply. You were his soulmate. You were the one who truly understood him. Thank you for making his life the life he could only dream about. I have and always will carry Randy in my heart. He is a large part of my success in life, my success in my career, my success as a man. He will always be a part of me. I am proud that in the end I had the chance to tell him that I love him and that he told me he loved me back. That in of itself brings unmeasured peace to me. While Randy is no longer physically present, he will always be spiritually present in my life and I will forever continue to share, talk, think of and joke with him. Eternally, Joe Cruz