Randy Hersh: 1953-04-22 to 2012-08-15

[J N Winkler]

The Tampa Bay Times obituary can be found here:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sptimes/obituary.aspx?n=randy-hersh&pid=159343775

Randy's profile page on the funeral home website is here:

http://easyfhweb.com/restinpeace.aspx?MemberId=109458&MName=Randy%20%20Hersh&FLVId=116

[NE2]

For those unaware of context, Randy was one of H.B.'s enemies on m.t.r.

[hbelkins]

For those unaware of context, Randy was one of H.B.'s enemies on m.t.r.

Not just me, but C.C. Slater, Rich Piehl, Adam Prince and a number of others.

He seemed to be such an angry person in this life. Hopefully in the afterlife he will find the peace that seemingly eluded him here.

The Tampa Bay Times obituary can be found here:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sptimes/obituary.aspx?n=randy-hersh&pid=159343775

Randy's profile page on the funeral home website is here:

http://easyfhweb.com/restinpeace.aspx?MemberId=109458&MName=Randy%20%20Hersh&FLVId=116

Curious as to how you became aware of this.

[agentsteel53]

weren't there rumors that he posted here under some deep cover name?

[hbelkins]

weren't there rumors that he posted here under some deep cover name?

He quoted posts here often enough on m.t.r. that it was obvious he either lurked here, was in "read-only" mode or had a spy who told him what certain people posted.

I didn't fire the first shot in that feud. For some reason he developed a dislike of me. It was a combination of politics, geography and transportation priorities, I guess (he hated any road-building in the Appalachians or the south).

[seicer]

Randy was just a very angry person, or at least how he posed himself online. I hope he finds more peace in the afterlife. RIP.

[NE2]

Not just me, but C.C. Slater, Rich Piehl, Adam Prince and a number of others.

I didn't realize you had so many sockpuppets.

[Beltway]

Curious as to how you became aware of this.

And curious as to how it is known that this is the same Randy Hersh.

[J N Winkler]

Curious as to how you became aware of this.

And curious as to how it is known that this is the same Randy Hersh.

I found the obituary and the funeral home website when I ran a Google search for {Randy Hersh obituary} about half an hour before I posted.  Randy had admitted on MTR that although he lived most of the year in New Jersey, he wintered with relatives in Florida.

But this is not the full story.  I had been corresponding with Randy by email for seven years.  He had some quite serious health problems, including an insulin-resistant form of type II diabetes which led to him losing a foot to osteomyelitis in 2003.  However, what actually caused his death was a form of melanoma which was initially detected in late 2011 as nodules on his lungs.  He had been undergoing chemotherapy over the past few months but a final round last July was unsuccessful and we learned in early August that he was in hospice care.

I last received an email from Randy himself on June 23.  By August 4, when a long-standing friend of his (not a member of this community) made arrangements for us to convey our goodbyes to him by telephone, Randy had to have his cell phone held to his ear by a third friend in New Jersey.

So, this obituary was not an unexpected discovery.

[hbelkins]

But this is not the full story.  I had been corresponding with Randy by email for seven years.  He had some quite serious health problems, including an insulin-resistant form of type II diabetes which led to him losing a foot to osteomyelitis in 2003.  However, what actually caused his death was a form of melanoma which was initially detected in late 2011 as nodules on his lungs.  He had been undergoing chemotherapy over the past few months but a final round last July was unsuccessful and we learned in early August that he was in hospice care.

I last received an email from Randy himself on June 23.  By August 4, when a long-standing friend of his (not a member of this community) made arrangements for us to convey our goodbyes to him by telephone, Randy had to have his cell phone held to his ear by a third friend in New Jersey.

I hope your discussions with him were more pleasant than most others' were. I hope he was not as combative with you as he was with so many of us.

I also wonder if his frequently-expressed opinions were genuinely held or a front, or if they were merely bait to provoke responses. If they were genuinely held, I wonder why.

At first I respected him for his interest in roads and signage, but that quickly faded as he began to express some of his more infamous opinions about minorities, adherents to his own religion, Christianity, rural residents and needed and necessary highway projects.

[NE2]

needed and necessary highway projects

Hahahahaha.

[hbelkins]

I'm not sure which he disliked more, the ICC or Corridor H.

[NE2]

I'm not sure which he disliked more, the ICC or Corridor H.

Now that you give examples of projects you think are "necessary", whatever point you were trying to make is utterly ruined. Corridor H especially is pork.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ArsonMurderAndJaywalking

[hbelkins]

I'm not sure which he disliked more, the ICC or Corridor H.

Now that you give examples of projects you think are "necessary", whatever point you were trying to make is utterly ruined. Corridor H especially is pork.

I used to think you were Randy. You share his opinion on Corridor H.

Do I need to go into the reasons that it isn't, and how it will become the preferred route from the midwest to DC once it's completed?

[NE2]

Do I need to go into the reasons that it isn't, and how it will become the preferred route from the midwest to DC once it's completed?

You already did, and I busted them wide open.

[hbelkins]

You already did, and I busted them wide open.

I don't remember that, but there is no way you could win that argument. Unless they enjoyed going out of their way and/or paying tolls, no one would use I-70 straight from Kansas City or St. Louis to DC, or use I-68/I-70 or I-64/I-81 from Kentucky or West Virginia, if the alternative of a four-lane Corridor H existed.

But back to the subject at hand. I visited Google Groups and tried to find the last post by the deceased. It was in early May, and (surprise, surprise) it was a personal attack.

[NE2]

I don't remember that, but there is no way you could win that argument. Unless they enjoyed going out of their way and/or paying tolls, no one would use I-70 straight from Kansas City or St. Louis to DC, or use I-68/I-70 or I-64/I-81 from Kentucky or West Virginia, if the alternative of a four-lane Corridor H existed.

Starts here: https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=1665.msg130535#msg130535 In short, I-70 is shorter and flatter (and detouring via I-68 is still shorter than H, though not as flat). Improving I-70 in Pennsylvania would have been much more reasonable than building a new four-lane across West Virginia.

[Scott5114]

Why not start a new thread about Corridor H in the main body of the forum where others can see it and join in?

[NE2]

Why not start a new thread about Corridor H in the main body of the forum where others can see it and join in?

Been there, done that, linked above, no need to repeat.

[J N Winkler]

But back to the subject at hand. I visited Google Groups and tried to find the last post by the deceased. It was in early May, and (surprise, surprise) it was a personal attack.

You mean this?

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/misc.transport.road/dlYl-vf2ZPs

It was in response to this OP:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=soap%20dodger&defid=3187025

Seems fitting to post here.

If you lay the bait, you have to be prepared to accept a share of responsibility for what results.

[Beltway]

Starts here: https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=1665.msg130535#msg130535 In short, I-70 is shorter and flatter (and detouring via I-68 is still shorter than H, though not as flat). Improving I-70 in Pennsylvania would have been much more reasonable than building a new four-lane across West Virginia.

Strawman.  Corridor H will mainly serve the connection between Northern VA and central WVA.  That by itself warrants a 4 lane highway, and is much shorter than by I-64.

[Scott5114]

Since, as NE2 points out, we already have a Corridor H thread, take your discussion of that there.

[hbelkins]

But back to the subject at hand. I visited Google Groups and tried to find the last post by the deceased. It was in early May, and (surprise, surprise) it was a personal attack.

You mean this?

https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/misc.transport.road/dlYl-vf2ZPs

It was in response to this OP:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=soap%20dodger&defid=3187025

Seems fitting to post here.

If you lay the bait, you have to be prepared to accept a share of responsibility for what results.

Well, I mentioned no names, but apparently the shoe fit him. Also in that time frame was a diatribe against me because of a post I made here about the use of taxis vs. ambulances in taking patients to the hospital.

As I said, I hope your dialogue with him was more pleasant than the interactions most everyone else had with him.

As I said, early on I had respect for him but he blew that with his racist and profanity-filled diatribes, and I forgot to mention his scofflaw attitude toward paying taxes. I also wanted to have sympathy for him because of his illness. My father was an amputee because of injuries suffered in the Korean War, and I also had a boss who lost a leg due to complications from diabetes. But he squandered any goodwill he might have earned by his general attitude, and then later on his personal attacks against me and others based solely on our political views, our religion and our geographical location.

[Alps]

Well HB you definitely kept poking him rather than let it die. (What, too soon?) If we all ignore trolls, they go away. You in general do a poor job of that.

[Beltway]

Well HB you definitely kept poking him rather than let it die. (What, too soon?) If we all ignore trolls, they go away. You in general do a poor job of that.

No, he would not "go away".  He kept posting serial personal abuse toward people who had killfiled him and totally ignored him for months.  With some trolls, ignoring them only lets them run roughshod over the group.  Well, a no-win situation, they run roughshod over the group whether they are ignored or not ignored.