New Gloucester - Dr. John Lear Randall, age 85, died peacefully at Gosnell Memorial Hospice House on November 3, 2024 after a four-year journey with Parkinson’s disease. He leaves behind his beloved wife and soulmate of 33 years, Elizabeth Randall, eight children, and nine grandchildren.

John was born on June 7th, 1939 to Mary Lear and Samuel Jackson Randall III. He was the great grandson of the 29th speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Samuel Randall, who served from 1876-1881.

Born in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, the first seven years of John’s life were spent in an idyllic farm community, surrounded by bucolic fields and horse-drawn plows. This sparked a love of farming and agriculture, a passion he pursued all his life. He grew up with his two younger sisters, Susie and Mary.

Upon the death of his father his family moved to Philadelphia where he attended Chestnut Hill Academy, and then studied religion at Princeton, where he ate at Quad and roomed with George Scheele. He also rowed lightweight crew and played 150 lb. football.

Upon graduation he had plans to move to Germany to further his studies in theology when a trusted mentor who saw his love of service and care for people, encouraged him to instead pursue medicine. He completed his medical training at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He then became an MDCM (Medical doctor of Canadian medicine), a distinction that gave him a better appreciation of global health.

After medical school he completed his internship at Pennsylvania Hospital and his residency in pediatrics at the University of Vermont. From 1968-1970, he served as Lieutenant Commander in the Navy, stationed in Charleston, South Carolina. He returned to Philadelphia to complete an infectious disease fellowship at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and at the Wistar Institute under Hilary Kaprowski before joining the faculty of the Family Medicine program at Lancaster General Hospital in Pennsylvania in 1973. Although a pediatrician, he enthusiastically embraced the philosophy of community and family health. By this time in his life, John was certified in three medical specialties, pediatrics, family medicine, and infectious disease. While in Lancaster, he and his first wife, Denney Morton, lived and raised his three eldest children, Kate, Julie, and Susan on a farm, where they raised sheep, rode horses, and grew vegetables.

During his years in Lancaster, he was involved in two major public health events. He had the unique opportunity to sit on a national committee to remediate the clean-up of the 1979 nuclear accident at Three Mile Island, testifying in front of Congress on behalf of the Physicians for Social Responsibility. He also played a key role in ending the polio epidemic in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania which occurred in the same year. He and his team worked with the Amish bishops to get authorization to conduct mass immunization among the 82 parishes in the region, thus helping to end the epidemic.

In 1981, he and his family moved to Cape Elizabeth where he became the residency director and chief of family medicine at Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine. During his time in Portland, he studied Chinese language and Chinese medical practices and started practicing Tai Chi, Qi Gong, and continued his study of the I Ching–something he carried throughout his life. In 1986 he toured China with a medical delegation and received standing ovations for his lectures when he would describe, in Chinese, the beauties of coastal Maine.

After his first marriage ended, from 1991 to 2002, he was the chairman of the Department of Family Medicine at the Sidney Kimmel Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. When asked, one of his colleagues described him as “a perpetual optimist. He was an out of the box thinker – someone once told me he never actually got into the box. He believed in bringing joy to the workplace.”

In 1991 he married his current wife Elizabeth Randall in New Gloucester, Maine. He became father to three children from Elizabeth’s previous marriage, Janneke, Martin, and Tina, and he and Elizabeth welcomed two more daughters into the mix, Mary and Sydney. They lived in Philadelphia, splitting their time between the farm in New Gloucester, Maine, and Pennsylvania until he moved with his family back to the farm in 2002. After “retiring” from Jefferson, he devoted his time to working on the farm. They raised sheep, chickens, cows, and were host to barn cats, farm dogs, and two beautiful draft horses.

In 2004 he was approached about a new adventure to teach at St. Matthew’s University, Grand Cayman Island, British West Indies; two years later he became the Dean of Clinical Sciences and Chief Academic Officer, visiting the island four times a year. He held this position until 2015. He embraced this opportunity to work with students from all around the globe, many of whom were less likely to be admitted to U.S. medical schools due to inherent bias. In his later years he served as a senior consultant for the Institute of Integrative Health, now Nova Institute in Baltimore, and earned a master’s degree in Holistic spirituality, an expression of his lifelong interest in the diverse ways that humanity connects with the spiritual and the divine.

His family, friends, and colleagues will forever remember him as the ultimate Renaissance man. A lifelong lover of the arts, you could find him quoting Shakespeare or belting out Broadway at the dinner table. He had a deep love and appreciation for animals and an inherent understanding of nature. Although his wife converted him to become a Red Sox fan, his love for the Phillies and Eagles never truly left. He wrote poetry, studied opera (especially Wagner), and had a book on any subject. He had a deep sense of connection to his ancestors and felt a responsibility to honor their legacies. He was innately curious and perceptive, had an infectious sense of humor, and could talk to anyone about anything. He was committed to his community, acting as chair of the New Gloucester safety committee for ten years. But above all else he loved his family, with a deep and steadfast devotion.

He is survived by his wife Elizabeth Randall; his sister Susie MacBride; his first wife Walden Semmes Morton; his children Kate Randall, Julia Brock (Manos Soultanakis), Susan Randall (Matt Sargent), Janneke Strickland (Garred), Martin Voigt (Desirée Mühe), Bettina Herrick (Trevor), Mary Randall (Stance Osuna), and Sydney Randall (Brian Wollocko); his nephews and niece Jono and Sam MacBride, Win and Jody Alford, Frank, Mark, and Jack Kaba, Emrys Berwick, and Eleanor Meyer; his grandchildren Jack Weston, Raz and Lena Hansen, Tia Soultanakis, Elizabeth, William, and Thomas Strickland, Everly and Maximilian Herrick. He was preceded in death by his sister Mary Hopkins.

There will be a celebration of his life on November 16th, 2024 at 10:30am at the New Gloucester Congregational Church with reception to follow. In his memory donations can be made to the Parkinson’s Foundation and the Maine State Society for the Protection of Animals (horse sanctuary). His family would like to extend their deepest thanks to the caring staff at Gosnell Hospice House.

Posted 11/17/24