Community members honor Habitat founder

An overflow crowd of friends, family and colleagues gathered at Sisters Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration last Friday to honor Sisters Habitat for Humanity founder Hort Hammond.

Hammond, 83, is suffering from terminal lung cancer. The celebration gave area residents the opportunity to acknowledge and thank Hammond for his community service.

Hammond organized Sisters Habitat for Humanity in 1989 and it became an affiliate of the international organization in 1991. Sisters Habitat has since built 36 homes for local families.

Friends recalled his enthusiasm for the project, which he learned of through reading a story in Reader’s Digest.

Bob Woods recalled that he did not entirely share Hammond’s enthusiasm when he was approached to help launch a program in Sisters.

“I saw this as an overwhelming task,” he said. “I wondered if a town the size of Sisters could sustain something like this. But I didn’t want to discourage him.”

Apparently Hammond was not easily discouraged. In a letter read by Master of Ceremonies Bob Grooney, Nan and Bill Miller offered a humorous salute to Hammond’s single-mindedness.

“Habitat for Humanity needed a stubborn, ornery, cantankerous cuss to get started — and it sure got one,” they wrote.

Tom Fish remarked that, “From a very humble beginning, what a monument has been built in Sisters through Habitat for Humanity and everything Hort has touched.”

The speakers also noted that Hort’s success had a great deal to do with his decision to make Julia Hammond his wife. Julia accepted these kudos with a wide and knowing smile.

Hammond has also been active in Sisters Kiwanis and other community service groups and is a member of Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church.

Church pastor Ron Gregg offered a moving tribute to a man he called “one of my heroes.”

His voice quavering with emotion, Gregg said, “He inspires me and he has inspired others in how to live well.”

Gregg noted that living well has meant living with adversity. He described Hammond’s struggle with manic-depressive illness and talked about the way he has learned to give and receive peace and forgiveness.

“Our world desperately needs to learn that lesson,” he said.

Gregg also said that he has found inspiration in Hammond’s dignified manner of facing death, offering a lesson in “letting go and trusting.”

Perhaps the most direct tribute of all was read by Bonnie Malone in a letter from Hammond’s daughter Barbara Jo:

“Our dad is truly our hero for the work he has done for others through Habitat for Humanity.”