Harvey Dick Hammons

With his daughter and loving caregiver at his side, our dad, Harvey Dick Hammons, was released from the unkind burden his earthly body had imposed on him in recent years, and joined his wife, parents and brother in Heaven on the morning of July 15. The world will be a quieter, much less interesting place without him. Dick was born on October 4, 1928 in Valley View, Texas, the son of sharecroppers. Moving west in search of work, the family eventually settled in Grants Pass, Ore., where Dick graduated high school as a letterman on the Grants Pass High School football and baseball teams. After high school, he entered military service to become an aviator, but was unable to continue due to injuries sustained during training. He entered University of Oregon as the first of his family to attend, and ultimately graduate college, after a detour through the Korean Conflict in the U.S. Army, 40th Infantry Division. After Korea, Dick returned to the U of O, and met Edna Mae Tinker, who, on September 4, 1955, become Edna Mae Hammons. The couple settled in Portland, where Dick joined the Internal Revenue Service and served his entire working career as an agent. An involved father, he rarely if ever missed a game, performance, school event for his three children, nor any opportunity to be with his family. He coached in Parkrose Little League for many years, even after his own children had aged out, and volunteered as a youth baseball umpire throughout the city. Upon retiring in 1984, he moved with his wife and daughter to the family farm in Milton-Freewater, Ore., where he became a self-proclaimed “unpaid, part-time farmhand.” As needed he would help his son with the farm work...so long as said work did not conflict with golf at Walla Walla Country Club, his annual month-long February trips to Hawaii, or rides on his beloved Arabian horses. Dick is survived by his daughter Elizabeth, son-in-law Marc, and grandchildren Zac and Tia Mae Kendall of Gresham, Ore.; son Brian and grandson Johnathan Hammons of Milton-Freewater; and son Richard Hammons, daughter-in-law Erin Couch, and grandsons Colin and Hugh Hammons of Portland. A memorial service will be held on Tuesday, July 22 at 2:00 pm at Zeller’s Chapel of the Roses, 2107 NE Broadway St, Portland. We request you honor Dick at the service by wearing your favorite Hawaiian or golf attire. Remembrances in Dick’s name would be gratefully accepted by Portland’s HouseCall Providers, www.housecallproviders.org, 971-202-5500 or by Walla Walla Community Hospice, www.wwhospice.org, 509-525-5561.