Randy Beaver

Randy Michael Beaver, age 69, born August 14, 1955, peacefully passed away on May 22, 2025, surrounded by the love of his family by his side.

Randy was born in Wadena, MN. He has lived on the same Beaver family farm in Verndale his entire life. He loved his land and the small-town country life. Randy grew up on the farm helping his parents and enjoyed the animals. He told great stories of going to the State Fair every year to show his cows. Randy had a soft spot for all animals and even had two pet raccoons in the house as a child. He was always wanting to take in a stray cat and would catch a spider to let it outside instead of squishing it. As a teenager and young adult, snowmobiles were his passion. He raced them professionally and was very good at it.

Randy married the love of his life, Judy (Zeller) on October 14, 1978. Together, they have created a beautiful life full of travel, hard work, laughter, and joy. In his early career days, he worked as a small engine mechanic at Mr. Harry's. He also worked as a home builder. The majority of his career, he worked at Homecrest, starting as a paint drip wiper and working his way up to the supervisor of the shipping department. After a downturn in the market, he went to college, where he earned his LPN degree, graduating at the top of his class at age 48. He spent his final career years working at Bell Hill Recovery Center.

Randy and Judy had two daughters, Shantel and Chelsa. He embraced his title of girl dad. He never missed any of the girls’ sporting or school events. He was the dad always in the stands, no matter how far away the game was. Randy believed in hard work and raised his girls to be the same. He would practice basketball free throws and softball pitching with Shantel until it was perfected. He built Chelsa an at home batting cage to practice her swings.

Randy took pride in everything he did. He was very mechanically inclined and could build or fix anything you can imagine. He could look at a problem and redesign and create anything. He always went above and beyond in what he created. Good enough was not in Randy’s vocabulary. He did everything one and a half times better.

Service work and the Verndale Lions became a huge part of who Randy was. He was an active member for 30 years. Over the course of his Lions membership, he has received many recognitions including being inducted into the MD5M Lions Hall of Fame, the Presidential Award, and is a Melvin Jones Fellow. He also was the 2008 Verndale Sorehead.

Randy loved the MN Twins, and was a season ticket holder for many years. He also loved being at the lake with his family. Randy was a storyteller. He always had a story to share, whether it be about his childhood and dropping gold coins down a wall, his fast paced snowmobile racing days, or his younger years of ridiculous pranks such as leaving an outhouse in the middle of a busy intersection.

Randy was also a very proud grandpa. His two grandkids were his pride and joy. They could do no wrong in his eyes and he loved to spoil them. When Shantel married Nick, Randy finally got the son he never had. He and Nick talked almost every day, mostly about complete nonsense. Those two were two peas in a pod and you could never believe anything they said that came out of their conversations.

Randy is preceded in death by his parents, Peter and Alta (Ireland) Beaver, his parents-in-law, Delmar and JoAnn (Voshell) Zeller, as well as several aunts, uncles, and cousins

Randy is survived by Judy, his devoted wife of 46 years; his children: Shantel (Nick) Sundby of Sartell, and Chelsa Beaver of Minnetonka; his grandchildren: Blake and Avery Sundby; and his brother: Larry (Virginia) of Baxter. He will be dearly missed by many other extended family members and friends who will always remember his quick wit, big heart, and generous spirit.

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