Richard Julian Hammond

1914 - 2006

Richard J. Hammond, legendary academy principal and administrator at Loma Linda University also served as minister of music at Campus Hill Seventh-day Adventist Church in Loma Linda, California, from 1972 to 1982. He was an ordained minister and an accomplished pianist with an interest in conducting.

Richard was born in Jonesboro, Indiana, on September 8, 1914, one of two children and the only son of Daniel Spessard and Verda M. Roberts Hammond. He graduated from Indiana Wesleyan University in 1940 with a degree in music and history and then attended Harvard University Divinity School, where completed an S.T.B (Sacre Theologiae Baccalaureus, a graduate degree), in 1943. He earned an M.A. from the SDA Seminary in Takoma Park, Maryland, now Andrews University Seminary, in 1944 and completed a C.A.G.S. (Cerificate of Advanced Graduate Study) from Boston University in 1962.

He founded Greater Boston Academy in 1944 and served as its principal for 25 years. He provided distinguished service in that position and was instrumental in its growth as a school with high academic standards. Hammond then served as Director of Admissions at the Loma Linda University School of Public Health and as Special Assistant to the Dean for Student Affairs from 1971 to 2001, when he retired at age 86. In 2001, he raised funds for an Adventist World Radio station in India and an AIDS clinic in South Africa through his annual Music in Many Lands program.

Hammond and Lyle Jewell were honored for their musical contributions to the Campus Hill Church when the church's chapel was named for them as part of its centennial year celebration. The Hammond-Jewell Music center was dedicated on June 6, 2006. He had died on March 6 of that year, at age 91.

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Sources: Obituary, Adventist Review, 19 October 2006, 6; Biography in Hammond-Jewell Music Center, Dedication Service Program, Campus Hill Church, 3 June 2006, 4. 1920, 1930 U.S. Census Records and Hartman’s Family Tree, Ancestry. com; “Richard Hammond Returns to Home Conference,” Lake Union Herald, May 6, 1975, pg. 7; “Welcome to Greater Boston Academy,” Atlantic Union Gleaner, September 1, 1944, pg. 2; “Greater Boston Academy,” Atlantic Union Gleaner, July 22, 1969, pg. 4; “Ground-Breaking for Greater Boston Academy,” Atlantic Union Gleaner, November 23, 1969, pg. 9; “Council on Secondary Education Convenes,” Northern Union Outlook, July 25, 1969, pg. 1; Anna Thornton Hammond Obituary, Review and Herald, June 25, 1959, pg. 25; Biography in Hammond-Jewell Music Center, Dedication Service Program, Campus Hill Church, 3 June 2006, 4; Patricia Clanton, “Special Program at Greater Boston Academy,” Atlantic Union Gleaner, April 5, 1965, pg. 10; Patti Gentry Gutherie, “Richard Hammond: Fatherly Friend,” Adventist Review, May 25, 1989, pgs. 14, 15; Richard J. Hammond, S.T.B., “Man’s Intolerance of Man,” Liberty, 4^th Quarter, 1943, pgs. 7-9; “Christ, the Light of the World,” Adventist Review, January 11, 1979, pgs. 9,10; “Yours in the Blessed Hope,” AR, June 26, 1997, pgs. 12-14; “Modest Investment, Immeasurable Returns,” Review and Herald, November 27, 1969, pg. 6; Letter to Review and Herald, September 27, 1973, pg. 10; Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014.