Robert Randall "Randy" Peek

Robert Randall (Randy) Peek
February 4, 1959 – February 23, 2022

The family of Randy Peek, noted Indianapolis audiophile and lover of European cars, is saddened to announce that Randy passed away peacefully and unexpectedly at home on Wednesday, February 23. He was 63.

One of four children born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin to Robert and Linda Peek, Randy was sociable and easy-going, a man with rock star good looks and an encyclopedic knowledge of music. His generosity of spirit made people instantly comfortable in his company.

Randy spent most of his working life in retail in Indianapolis, first with The Record Company, and later with Ovation Audio Video and Hi-Fi Buys. It was in 1977 at The Record Company that he met Mark Lewis, who was to become his best friend. “I walked into the store and they were playing Roxy Music,” said Mark. “I mentioned that to Randy and he turned to the manager and said: ‘You should hire this guy.’”

Randy moved to Nashville, Tennessee in the mid-1980s to do custom AV sales and installations. It was there that he met and married Robyn Bryant, an insurance executive.

Randy had an eye out for new business ventures, especially if they involved something he loved and could tinker with. Thus, he amassed and curated a personal museum of vintage audio and video equipment during his lifetime. A similar foray in the 1990s that involved cornering the market in used BMWs and selling them at a profit didn’t work out quite so well. His latest car was a black Volvo XC70 Cross Country.

He also loved Canada and especially Toronto, where he lived with his family for several years in the early 1970s before returning to Indianapolis. He took advantage of every opportunity to cross the border and visit his sisters’ families, either in Toronto or camping in Grand Bend, Ontario, a halfway point between the two cities. It surprised no one when Randy started his own renovation company and called it Up North.

“Randy was the coolest uncle,” his nephew Chris Coates recalled, the two of them sneaking out to video arcades on the Grand Bend strip, Chris to try and best his score while Randy nursed a beer and checked out the bikini-clad talent. He also showed his 10-year-old nephew the foolproof way of catching a frog (it involves a twig and dead butterfly).

Randy was predeceased by his father, Robert Peek (1999), his stepfather Robert Wessel (2021) and his former wife Robyn Bryant (2014). He is survived by his mother Linda Wessel of Hot Springs Village, Arkansas; his siblings Jane Coates (David), Mindy McKen (Charles Hain), all of Toronto, and Tom Peek of Indianapolis; step-siblings Christa Wessel (Darrell Hanks) of Portland, Oregon and Rob Wessel (Lulu Tupper) of Fort Collins, Colorado; nephew Chris Coates (Melissa Bryanton) of Toronto and niece and nephew Roxi and Gib Wessel of Fort Collins.

In lieu of flowers or donations, Randy would have liked nothing more than his friends and family to pay a good deed forward on his behalf.