Randall Stamey Denny

        Randall Stamey Denny of Hopewell/Guilford Heights and Surry County, VA died on February 14, 2019   Born on July 17, 1934 in Amelia, VA, he was preceded in death by his wife Rebecca (Becky) Easter Denny, parents Randall B. and Mary Dodson Denny, brothers George (& Doris) and Mallory Denny, son Bruce Randall Denny and daughter, Dana Carol Denny Simonsen.

          Surviving are his son Brian Scott Denny of Hopewell; grandchildren:  Dustin Walker, Austin Simonsen, Kelci Simonsen, Andrew McCrea, Randy and Josephine Denny; sister Lucy D. (& Harry) Lewis of Richmond and In-laws : Frances H. Denny of Dinwiddie, Rachael E. (& Duke) Dickerson of Chester, Charlotte E  (Dana) Donahue of Disputanta and Julia T. Easter of Amelia, Barton “Pete“ (& Jeannie) Easter of Amelia and Garland (& JoAnne) of Fishersville, VA.

Randy served honorably as a Medic with the Virginia National Guard for eleven years.  Since 1964, the Denny’s have maintained a home on the James River, and Randy patiently taught each child to operate boats, motor cycles, four-wheelers, a Cushman Motor Scooter and an antique army ambulance as well as teaching them water  safety as he taught them how to water ski.   They learned how to put a boat in and out of the river by using an antique tractor.   So many family days with friends of Guilford Heights made life-time friendships for the children and the parents.

            Randy was a natural-born mechanic and he loved and collected many, many items with motors, mostly antique or inoperable which he restored or promised himself to restore.  To make an engine run (if it didn’t) or to make it run better, heightened his enjoyment of owning or working on it.   When he ran out of projects to work on at home, he volunteered at the Chippokes Plantation Antique Tractor Museum  (A VA State Park) in Surry County and there he taught his sons, grandsons and granddaughters to become  volunteers and also taught them all that he knew about  antique tractors.   All of the boys in his family soon knew how to identify each brand, by model no. and year made of all the tractors at the Museum; how to start them, operate them, how to maintain them and how to put them all away for the winter so that they would operate again the following year.    His sons and all five grandchildren were taught how to give back to the community and to make our world a better place by learning the history of antique farm equipment, and how to preserve it for the next generation through volunteerism.

       Randy spent 47 years as a papermaker; 36 years at Continental Can Co., changing names up to Stone Container Inc. (Currently Rock-Tenn), Hopewell, VA and the last 10 years , he sold chemicals to paper mills for BASSO Chemicals out of Jacksonville , FL.    He and Becky enjoyed driving from paper mill to paper mill, stopping along the way to pick up antique glass, Blue Ridge Pottery and unusual gadgets for their collections.

        One other passion of Randy’s was the Kraftsman Federal Credit Union, which he helped organize in 1961, serving as its second president and has been a member of the Board of Directors until the present.

There will be visitation at Wesley United Methodist Church in Hopewell on Saturday February 16, 2019 from 4-7:00 p.m.  A graveside service will be held at 1:00 p.m. on Monday February 18 at Sunset Memorial Park in Chester.  Memorial donations will be appreciated to the Wesley United Methodist Church bereavement fund 2901 Norfolk St. Hopewell, Va. 23860.

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