20070112 Randy Rager - Businessman remembered for character

Randy Rager - Businessman remembered for character

January 12, 2007 – posted February 12, 2007

The hyperlink is dead and someone asked me the other day about Randy Rager… I have another post about Mr. Rager here: “20070106 Local accountant Randy Rager died last Saturday.”

http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/articles/2007/01/12/news/local_news/newsstory4.txt

For other current news and information in Carroll County, the Carroll County Times web site is here: http://www.carrollcountytimes.com/

Meanwhile, I’ll post this article in which Carroll County Times writer, Ryan Marshall captured quite well who and what Randy Rager was and the impact of his death on the community… The words below belong to the Carroll County Times.

By Ryan Marshall, Times Staff Writer

Friday, January 12, 2007

City officials and members of the Westminster business community remembered Randy Rager Thursday as a man of integrity and character, whose death left a personal and professional void.

“If you looked up ‘gentleman’ in the dictionary, you’d find a picture of Randy,” Westminster mayor Thomas Ferguson said.

Rager, who died Saturday at the age of 53, was the president of the Rager, Lehman & Houck accounting firm.

Rager’s firm provided outside audits for the city, Ferguson said.

His loss leaves a hole in the community, the mayor said.

County Commissioner Dean Minnich was a neighbor of Rager and got to know him at neighborhood functions.

Although they were only acquaintances, Minnich said he’ll remember Rager as a solid citizen and a good neighbor, husband and father.

“I appreciate the relationship he had with his family,” Minnich said.

Along with his wife, Peggy, Rager is survived by children Maggie, Sam and Ally.

“People like the Ragers are the bedrock of our community,” Minnich said. “Everything we like about Carroll County is represented by people like [them].”

Ferguson cited Rager’s character, integrity and genuineness as the qualities he’d most remember.

A person like Randy Rager enriches the community, Ferguson said.

Rager served on the board of Carroll County Hospital Center for 10 years starting in the late 1980s.

The hospital’s president and CEO John Sernulka remembered Rager as a born leader with quiet authority.

He served four years as the board’s chairman, chaired the finance committee and served on several other boards and committees at the hospital.

“When he spoke, he had something to say, and people listened,” Sernulka said.

Rager served 10 years on the board, the maximum amount anyone is allowed to serve consecutively before taking at least a two-year break. Rager was asked to come back to the board after his break and was in the second year of his second 10-year term.

Sernulka called Rager for guidance on tough decisions about hospital issues, he said.

They last spoke at the board’s Jan. 2 meeting, where Rager was appointed to work on issues of transparency in the hospital’s procedures.

“Everything he spoke was truth,” Sernulka said.

Rager also served on the development committee at St. John Catholic Church in Westminster. Officials there remembered him as a strong leader and dedicated father.

Rager was a good person to have at the table when a decision was being made, the Rev. Patrick Carrion said.

He had a steady, calm presence at meetings and listened to what people had to say before he made his feelings known, Carrion said.

Monsignor Arthur F. Valenzano knew Rager for 14 years and admired his integrity and dedication to his family.

Rager was always at his children’s sporting and other events and was an active father, Valenzano said.

For church administrators who are often required to deal with numbers even if they don’t have a natural ability for them, Rager was an invaluable resource, Valenzano said.

“If Randy said the numbers were right, you kind of felt the numbers were right.”

On Monday night, the Westminster Common Council passed a memorial resolution honoring Rager’s contributions to the community and the accounting profession.

Rager’s sudden death was a loss for the City of Westminster as well as his family, Mayor Ferguson said Thursday.

“To have it end in a snap of a finger is hard to take.”

Reach staff writer Ryan Marshall at 410-857-7865 or rmarshall@lcniofmd.com.