Don Randall Passes

[TDPRI]

One of Fender's "Founding Fathers," Don Randall Passes.

One of Fender's founding fathers, Donald Randall, 91 passed away peacefully on Dec. 23, 2008, at his residence.

Other than Leo Fender himself, Randall was undoubtedly the most important person in the original era of Fender history, 1946 to 1965. He was Leo Fender’s partner and the sales, distribution, marketing and advertising genius behind the company’s rise from small California guitar maker to worldwide musical industry leader.

Donald Dean Randall was born in Kendrick, Idaho, on Oct. 30, 1917. The family moved to California when Randall was 10 years old, and he developed an avid interest in radios and audio amplifiers while still in high school (he earned his ham radio operator license at age 16 in 1934). At the height of the Big Band era, Randall built a portable amplifier and speaker system that he set up at parties and dances. He was also a promising athlete who became captain of his high school basketball team, and in later life was an avid and accomplished golfer. He graduated from Santa Ana Community College.

Around 1940, Randall worked part-time as a salesman for Santa Ana, Calif., radio supply shop Howard Taylor Wholesale Radio, calling on Southern California radio shops including Clarence “Leo” Fender’s shop in Fullerton, Calif., Fender Radio Service. Randall and Fender met shortly before the United States entered World War II; Randall had bought Taylor’s store in 1941 but sold his inventory on being drafted into the Army.

During the war, Randall served in the Army Corps of Engineers, the Army Signal Corps and the Army Air Corps, becoming communications chief of the pre-flight school near Santa Ana (Randall was an avid lifelong aviator who received his pilot’s license in the early 1950s and logged thousands of flight hours in his own aircraft).

Randall left the Army in 1946 and immediately re-entered the radio business, managing Francis “F.C.” Hall’s Santa Ana radio shop, Radio-Tel. A natural salesman and an astute electrical engineer, Randall suggested that Hall distribute the steel guitars and amplifiers made by Leo Fender. Through Randall, Fender and Hall signed an agreement that March, marking the beginning of an extraordinarily successful partnership. Through Hall’s agency, Randall handled sales and distribution of Fender products first regionally, then nationally. Indeed, the fledgling Fender company owed its early success as much to Randall’s skilled sales organization as it did to its founder’s innovative products.

Randall became president of new organization Fender Sales in February 1953 (the Fender Electric Instrument Company having become a corporation in December 1951). Under Randall’s marketing genius, organizational expertise and senior partnership with Leo Fender, Fender Sales grew steadily throughout the 1950s and thrived well into the 1960s on an international scale. It was he who coined the names Esquire®, Telecaster® (and its earlier incarnation, the Broadcaster) Stratocaster®, Precision Bass® (with Leo Fender) Twin Reverb®, Bassman® and others.

“I’ve said on several occasions that Don Randall was a music industry marketing genius without equal,” said Tom Wheeler, former Guitar Player magazine editor and noted author of books such as The Stratocaster Chronicles and The Soul of Tone: Celebrating 60 Years of Fender Amps. “Don Randall re-imagined the way guitars were marketed. He recognized that guitar playing was more than an occupation or a pastime. It was a way of life, particularly for a new generation of young people. His vision had an incalculable impact on Fender, on the entire music business, and on how guitars and guitar playing are perceived by the public. He was plain-spoken, dignified, and gentlemanly, one of the giants of our industry.”

Further, it was Randall who pushed for low-priced beginner guitars in the mid-1950s as an essential ingredient in a step-up sales program, spurring the introduction of the student-level Musicmaster and Duo-Sonic guitars.

Randall also spoke for Fender in the 1964 negotiations that resulted in the company’s sale to CBS; he subsequently became vice president and general manager of the Fender Musical Instrument and Fender Sales divisions of CBS until his departure from the company in 1969. In the 1970s, he founded Randall Amplifiers.

Randall was among the first six inductees into the Fender Hall of Fame in summer 2007, attending the ceremony in Scottsdale, Ariz., with his family.

Randall is survived by two sons, Donald R. Randall of Walnut Creek, Calif., and Timothy L. Randall of Santa Ana; a daughter, Chelena “Kathy” Grimshaw of San Juan Capistrano, Calif.; six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Services will be at noon local time on Friday, Jan. 9, 2009, in Waverly Chapel at Fairhaven Memorial Park, 1702 Fairhaven Ave., Santa Ana, Calif., 92705.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Boys and Girls Club of Santa Ana, 250 N. Golden Circle No. 104, Santa Ana, Calif., 92705, attention: Robert.