Randolph A. "Murph" Piazza

Randolph Piazza, known by all as “Murph”, was passionate about changing the world for the better and lived by the axiom, “you only get to keep what you give away”. 

Murph graduated from Williamsville South in 1993 and attended Fredonia State College, studying abroad in Madrid for a year. He went on to graduate from Buffalo State College with a major in Spanish in 1997. True to his character, he joined the Peace Corps and served two tours, one in Bolivia and one in Papua New Guinea. In between his tours, he lived and worked in Madrid for two years. When he left the Peace Corps, he attended the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, Netherlands graduating in 2005 with a master’s degree in rural livelihoods and global change. He then went to the Republic of Moldova in Eastern Europe and worked with poor farmers, successfully procuring a grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development to help train apple growers in advanced organic farming techniques.

In late 2006, he moved to Venezuela where he worked with the PROUT Research Institute of Venezuela and taught English privately. A humanitarian, by definition, is someone who is devoted to the promotion of human welfare and the advancement of social reforms. Murph was a true humanitarian who lived humbly and worked tirelessly for the causes in which he believed.  He died tragically in an accident on December 13, 2010 in Caracas. 

His parents, Basil and MaryAnn, and siblings, Basil, Joseph, and Phyllis are proud of his legacy of kindness and compassion and the impact he made in the lives of so many people through his desire to help others.