Randall Gleason “Randy” Herbert, a construction coordinator for “The Wire” crime series and past Baltimore City Fair chair, died of cancer June 20 at his Seton Hill home. He was 75.
Born in Toledo, Ohio, he was the son of Frank John Herbert, a telephone company worker, and Dorris Gleason, a homemaker. A 1967 graduate of Whitmer High School, he attended management training at General Motors Institute before being drafted during the Vietnam War. He later attended what is now Towson University.
He served in the Army and was stationed in Wurzburg, Germany. There he met his future wife, Noreen Jane Frederick, a Souderton, Pennsylvania, native who was working as a civilian nurse in the 33rd Field Hospital. They met at a Wurzburg rathskeller frequented by Army personnel.
They married and moved to Towson in 1972. A year later they moved to George Street in Seton Hill.
Mr. Herbert became a proponent of life in Baltimore.
Randall Gleason “Randy” Herbert was a volunteer at the 1983 ticker tape celebration after the Orioles defeated the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series. (Handout)
“As their friends moved out to the county and as my father’s family grew, my parents decided to stay in Seton Hill to raise me and my sister,” said his daughter Lauren Elizabeth Barnette. “They liked walking to the Orioles games and the Lexington Market. They were part of a group who discovered Seton Hill in the 1970s and hung out at the old No Fish Today, the bar and restaurant.”
Mr. Herbert and his wife moved to North Paca Street and rehabilitated a former brothel.
“The house was basically a shell. All that was left was a bathtub sitting on rafters. There was no floor,” his wife said. “Randy and I did a lot to the old house.”
In 1983 he became chair of the old Baltimore City Fair, an annual fall event then staged in a part of the city that was about to be redeveloped. He worked from a firehouse near Lexington Market on planning the event. The fair itself was held in Harbor East, then largely a series of old piers and vacant lots.
“In order to use the piers, we had to get ahold of Bailey Bridges [temporary, prefabricated truss bridges] to connect the sites for the fair,” his wife said.
He chose Neil Diamond’s “America” to be played at the fair’s closing fireworks.
Mr. Herbert joined the management staff of the old Baltimore Civic Center, now the CFG Bank Arena, and helped run the Baltimore Blast soccer games, the annual Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus, as well as concerts and ice shows.
Mr. Herbert volunteered with the Office of Promotion and Tourism, the state Preakness Festival parades and the 1983 ticker tape celebration after the Orioles defeated the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series.
In 1990, he found a new career in the Maryland film industry.
He joined the Mid-Atlantic Studio Mechanics & Broadcast Technicians union and started working on the Barry Levinson film “Avalon.” A carpenter, he spent 25 years working as a construction coordinator on “Homicide: Life on the Street,” “The Corner,” “The Wire,” “House of Cards” and “Veep,” among others.
Film producer Nina Noble said: “Randy was not only a skilled and knowledgeable technician, he went out of his way to mentor others. He helped us build a community playground on 33rd Street on the old stadium site.
“And he never minded carefully explaining to me what a production needed if he were asking for something,” Ms. Noble said.
His film work included “The Pelican Brief,” “Sleepless in Seattle” and “He Said, She Said”
Film casting director Pat Moran said: “Randy was so reliable. I can’t imagine him not being there.”
Mr. Herbert was a member of Zion Lutheran Church of Baltimore and assisted in its maintenance.
Instead of a funeral, the family hosted a “wrap” party for Mr. Herbert.
Survivors include his wife of 53 years, Noreen Jane Frederick, a psychiatric nurse; two daughters, Lauren Barnette and Kelly Applefeld, both of Baltimore; two brothers, Frank John Herbert, of Iowa, and Keith Bentley Herbert, of St. Mary’s City; and two grandchildren.
Originally Published: July 24, 2024 at 5:00 a.m.