Published: November 03, 2009 10:07 am      

Vets: Hammond made typing pay off

Dick Hammond's life may have been different if his homeroom teacher at South Bend, Indiana High School had not been the typing teacher.

Planning to go to work after high school, Dick learned to type pretty well. When he was drafted into the U.S. Marine Air Force at the end of World War II in 1946, his typing skills were put to work. After basic training at Paris Island, S.C., he was sent to Cherry Point, S. C. where he typed all the discharge orders for all the Marines in the Marine Air Force, which was being phased out.

After typing some 600 discharge papers, he was one of the last four men left in the Marine Air Force before his own discharge papers were signed. He had spent 11 months and nine days in the service, receiving credit for a full year on the GI Bill.

He enrolled in night classes at Indiana University at South Bend where he studied until he was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1952. He was trained at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and then stationed with Army Headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany.

At Fort Knox, he attended leadership school and was subsequently assigned to the Quarter Master Corps under Col. Bice. He had his driver's license since he was 14 years old, plus he could type. He drove the colonel around for inspections. He would mark the “gigs” – goofs – and type up the inspection reports.

While in Germany, he used his free time to explore other parts of Europe, traveling to Spain, France and other countries.

Hammond is one of 11 San Marcos veterans to be nominated for grand marshal honors. He was nominated by AMVETS Post 144. He and the others not selected will be invited to ride in a float behind the grand marshal to serve as an honor guard.

He was discharged after his two years were up and he returned to Indiana University. In 1955, he saw a sign that the University of Hawaii was looking for students. So he and his new wife headed for Hawaii. She was hired to teach at the high school. He enrolled in college.

By 1957, he was back at Indiana University at Bloomington finishing his AB degree in science education which he received in 1960.

Hammond sees his next experience as similar to what the country is experiencing now with the H1N1 flu vaccine. From 1960 to 1963, he worked with other teachers on the National Oral Polio Vaccine Program. From his work with Eli Lily and Pfizer, he knows the H1N1 vaccine is growing much more slowly than the polio vaccine did and he thinks it will take longer than projected to get an adequate supply of the vaccine out where it is needed.

Next he was awarded a three-year fellowship at Indiana University at Bloomington where, in 1966, he received two master's degrees one from the College of Education and one from the College of Arts and Sciences. From 1966 until 1975, he worked with the National Science Foundation to develop K-12 curriculums from various school districts, including at American schools in Guam, Taipei and Isfahan, Iran.

From there he worked on his doctorate at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville while on a Fulbright Fellowship and continued to advocate for and write about science in the public schools.

It was in 1978 that a Texas Education Agency official persuaded him to come to Texas. He developed energy curriculum for the Richardson ISD. His passion has always been what he calls teaching energy science.

In 1980, Hammond was persuaded to join the faculty at what is now Texas State University-San Marcos. He retired as a professor emeritus in 1997 but continued to teach energy education as needed until 2008. During his time here, he had eight grants funded, more than 20 articles published, dozens of booklets produced and wrote the book The Human System: From Entropy to Ethics, now in its fifth edition.