Remembering Percy Randle: cancer survivor, chaplain, friend

In memoriam, 1956-2008

Leafing through her husband Percy Randle's journal recently, Anita Randle came across an entry that he had written several years ago.

"Why am I alive and so many other good people dead? It is something that occupies my mind a lot," Percy had written.

This is a common question for transplant survivors. And Percy, Anita said, was no exception.

"He knew that the second chance that he had been given through his bone marrow transplant at the Hutchinson Center was a gift.  And he wanted to give something in return," she said.

Diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia in 1981, Randle received a lifesaving transplant at the Center two years later, and soon after became its first chaplain as part of his pledge to help others.

For the next 13 years, Percy-as he preferred to be called, without the pretension of titles-served Center patients, their families and staff with empathy and inspiration. Percy died on October 22 in Mississippi, his home state. He was 52. Memorial services were held in Mississippi and at the Hutchinson Center in early November.

"Being a transplant patient is like being in a club that no one wants to be in. Percy was in the club and he understood how we felt, and that was his greatest contribution to patients," said Michael Rubin, a Hutchinson Center employee and transplant survivor who became friends with Percy many years ago.

The Hutchinson Center always held a special spot in his heart, Anita and friends said. The transplant gave him more than two decades of life, and he made the most of it.

He was known for his kind, warm-hearted humor and smiling eyes; he put people at ease with his Southern accent and comforting words; and he stood out in a crowd, walking with a cane, the product of his life-long spina bifida, a condition that never slowed him down.

Speaking about his job as chaplain shortly before retiring from that position, he said in an interview: "A person's here in their life-and-death situation. If you can make that situation better for them, what higher calling could there be?

"We do that every day here, and I don't mean just me in pastoral care. It's everyone-from the doctors and nurses and social workers to housekeeping and kitchen services, all the way across the board."

Percy, Anita said, had a favorite Ralph Waldo Emerson quote: "The greatest gift is a portion of thyself."

"And I think that is what he gave to everyone that he came into contact with-a portion of himself," she said.

Anita remembers the kind farewells when Percy finally resigned his chaplain position at the Center. One of them came from Dr. Robert Day, who told him, "You have brought solace to so many, good humor and good feelings to all of us, and an effective commitment to making so many other people's lives better."

"I think that's why Percy was here for 52 years," Anita said. "He made a difference and inspired others to do the same." 

	2005 Patient Reunion Photo Gallery