Biography

Randy was the only child of Alfred and Barbara Wendt. Randy’s mom and dad were very active in his life. They lived in Buena Park, California. Randy began acting at an early age and loved school. The family moved from California to Amarillo, Texas to be closer to Barbara’s father. Soon after, Randy’s dad Al became ill and was admitted to the VA Hospital. When Randy was 12, his father died of complications from Malaria due to being stationed overseas during his service in the Marine Corps.

This loss was a great sorrow to Randy and his mother Barbara. Barbara then had to figure out how she and Randy would survive after the loss of the family breadwinner. She struggled being a single mom in the 1970s and worried how she would ever afford to send her son to college. Barbara gained employment at a dry cleaners working long hours. At 13, Randy got his first job to help Barbara pay the bills. Life was hard on the small family without Al.

Randy did very well in school but soon became bored. He got his GED at 17 and dropped out. Randy then got a job with an armored car company while Barbara continued working for the dry cleaners. To spend time together, he would sometimes take his mother to work with him. Barbara would ride in the back with the money as he went on his rounds. After a decade, Randy realized this kind of work would lead nowhere and chose to go to college to become an attorney.

Randy’s long distance girlfriend lived in Buena Park, California. In 1991, he decided he was ready to propose marriage and made plans to travel to California. He wanted so much for his mother to make this great journey with him but she was unable to do so.

Once Randy arrived in California, he called his mother to let her know he arrived safely and would call her the next day. A few days later Barbara was contacted by a hospital that Randy had been attacked. She rushed to his side and discovered that he had been assaulted by 3 men during a robbery as he was leaving his motel room to meet his girlfriend. Randy later died from the wounds sustained during the attack. The police were able to recover Randy’s belongings but never found the 3 men who murdered him.

What should have been the beginning of a life of joy, family and accomplishment instead became a tragedy and lifetime of loss. Barbara decided, to honor her son’s memory, she wanted a Foundation established to assist the family members of other murder victims in getting back on a firm footing. As she thought of all her financial struggles due to the loss of her husband and son, thought of how other families are devastated from this kind of tragedy and longed to have seen her son succeed in college, she finally knew how best to honor her son after her death, through college scholarships to assist families of murder victims.