Randall Kieth (Randy) Bartman (1954- 2021) passed away after a long illness on February 22, 2021.
Randy was a loving spouse, father, dog parent, and an engineer and deputy section manager at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for 42 years. Randy moved to California from Wisconsin as a 17 year old freshman at Caltech, and he completed his BS degree, and did graduate work at Caltech as well. Randy interned at JPL while at Caltech and then joined the technical staff in 1979.
Throughout his tenure at JPL, he remained passionate about doing excellent technical work, teaching and mentoring others, and supporting the technical community there. Randy provided leadership, management and support for many JPL projects ranging from deep space probes to Mars laser spectrometers, Earth-sensing instruments, and ground-based telescopes. He was recognized throughout his career with many individual and team awards that called out his extraordinary efforts, expert technical advice, proposal leadership skills, and exceptional achievement.
In addition to his love of the people and the work of JPL, Randy enjoyed hanging out with his family, the Big Island of Hawaii, reading and collecting books, sudoku, good music, art, origami, animals and nature. He loved learning and teaching others what he knew. He valued community, and contributed to building community in his neighborhood, at All Saints Church in Pasadena, as well as at JPL.
Randy is survived by his wife Beth Houskamp, his son Seth Bartman, his mother by marriage Alyce Houskamp, and his siblings by marriage John (Beth) Houskamp, Kathy (Joel) Ruiter, and Bill (Amy) Houskamp. He is also survived by numerous nieces and nephews, and his loving golden retriever Kira. He is preceded in death by his parents George and Doris Bartman, and his father-in-law Dick Houskamp. A celebration of life service will be held later, when it is safe to gather together as the community Randy loved.
