Judge R.A. Jim Randall was among the first gubernatorial appointments to the Minnesota Court of Appeals after its creation by constitutional amendment in 1982.
It’s a sizable feather in his cap, but Randall — who had been active in the 1990s in a self-help society that put addicts to work rehabbing houses — swore he’d never forget that the people in his courtroom were every bit his equals in the eyes of the law. Dick Long, a like-minded businessman, split his time between running Long Cadillac in St. Paul and volunteering with the city’s homeless and chemically dependent.
When Long donated a barbecue grill to Catholic Charities’ downtown Dorothy Day Center, Randall figured he could take up a collection among his fellow judges and coax a few to help him fry up burgers one holiday weekend. Bret Byfield, a longtime outreach worker to the homeless and drummer for the band The Rhythm Pups, brought in live music. That was 21 years ago, and the annual Memorial Day weekend tradition — an unofficial launch of summer at St.
Paul’s most public-facing downtown shelter and resource center for the homeless — has never skipped a beat. “I said, ‘I could do that,'” recalled Randall, sitting Friday in the dining hall of the Catholic Charities St. Paul Opportunity Center, surrounded by a cadre of recent law school graduates and a who’s who of the state’s top legal minds, all dressed in aprons and disposable food prep gloves instead of power suits and judicial robes.
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