Name: Randy Dearth

Former role: District Manager, Vernal District

Number of years with Williams: 42

Number of years retired: 5 years 10 months

How have you been spending time in retirement?  I have lots of hobbies, so I spend a lot of time playing.  Hobbies include fishing, hunting, building knives, gathering shed antlers and my favorite one is chasing the grandkids playing sports. We have 16 grandchildren with many of them playing baseball, basketball, soccer, volleyball and football. That’s how my sweetheart wants to spend her retirement life. I support her in that as I love it too, but I also do a lot of fishing and hunting. Wintertime is a good time to be inside in the Rocky Mountains so I spent a week inside last month and built this knife. I’ve got a goal to build one for each of my grandchildren with their name laser engraved on it from grandpa and give it to them when they get married.

Are you involved in any community/volunteer activities?  Right after I retired in March of 2019, our state governor, Gary Herbert, appointed me to the Utah Wildlife Board, after which in July 2019 my appointment was ratified by the Utah legislature. The Wildlife Board is the decision-making body for all fish and wildlife related rules and regulations in Utah. Many states have wildlife commissions very similar to our board. The Utah Wildlife Board is made up of seven individuals from around the state. It’s a six-year appointment. I am presently the chairman of the board and have been for the past year and a half. I’ve got to meet a lot of very passionate people, passionate about wildlife, wildlife management, hunting, hunting techniques and hunting equipment. Some of the decisions we need to make affect people’s lives and livelihood. Those are the hard decisions; what’s best for the wildlife species are the easier decisions.  

So far, what has been your favorite thing about retirement?  Getting up every morning and my sweetheart asking me, “What are your plans today?” I always have a plan for the day figured out.

Anything else you would like to add?  I loved working at Williams and really do miss the people.