Harry Hammond
Our beloved husband, father, grandfather, brother, and friend, Harry Mark Hammond, aged 76, died May 28, 2024, in Oklahoma City, Okla., due to extended health conditions. He was born in Beach, N.D., on Aug. 13, 1947, the third of four children to Donald and Elinor Lovell Hammond. A happy toddler, his life would change dramatically with the sudden loss of his mother, and later, a tragic farm accident where he saved his older brother Scott. With time, his father would remarry Katherine Quam, and another sister would complete the family.
Harry attended Beach Elementary School and later graduated from Beach High School. While in school, he played baseball in the Golva Babe Ruth League, participated in FFA, and lettered all four years in band (trombone), boys and mixed choir, basketball, and football, earning all-conference football honors in his Junior and Senior years.
Upon graduating from high school, he received a scholarship to the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps. He attended the University of Colorado Boulder (CU), where he studied mathematics before serving as a Petty Officer in Navy Communications during the Vietnam War. He was honorably discharged, earning a National Defense Medal and the Vietnam Service Medal. He was stationed in the Philippines, Japan, and Vietnam, serving on bases and aboard the USS Enterprise and USS America.
While enlisted in the Navy, Harry met and married Ruby Settle of Wibaux, Mont., and together they had a daughter, Lisa. After Vietnam, Harry and his family moved to Leadville, Colo., for a job at the Amax molybdenum mine. After a couple of years, he returned to CU via the GI Bill. Even with the GI Bill, times were too tight for his family, so he left for work at the Henderson Molybdenum mine one semester short of finishing his degree in teaching.
Living in Colorado was an amazing experience for Harry, Ruby, and Lisa. There were many adventures of backpacking, four-wheel driving, and camping wherever their pickup and pop-up camper would take them. Family and friends would come along, and many trails would be explored, sometimes by flashlight, as they backed out of a surprise “dead end.” Harry was always quick to take Lisa and her friends on camping and field trips, and with the addition of Ruby’s sister Genie and mother Mildred, they were often On the Road Again with “Harry and his Harem.” The Hammond house was always full of friends and kids, as Harry soon became everyone’s career counselor and teacher/tutor, whether on the trail, in his music room, or at the dining room table.
A lifelong learner, Harry would be promoted to management and go on to obtain degrees in Industrial Management, Computer Science, and a Commercial Driver's License (CDL). He was always a man of logic, science, history, a lover of all music, and a fan of marching bands and Carl Sagan. With the decline of mining in Colorado, Harry and Ruby moved back to the Wibaux/Beach area, where life would eventually lead them in different directions.
Harry found work in the North Dakota Bakken oil field, where he began his career in commercial truck driving, dispatching, and management. Harry would meet Linda Johnston and her son Ross after relocating to Williston, N.D. Ross needed help with math, and Linda invited him for dinner. That invitation would soon lead to a wedding and the addition of a new blended family, with Linda’s children, Darren, Ross, and Tonia.
Married for over 30 years, Linda and Harry would live in Rapid City, S.D.; Watford City and Williston, N.D.; Kansas City, Mo.; Midland, Texas; and Edmond, Okla. There was never a roadside marker passed up when traveling together along the highways. Together, they would travel to visit friends and family, watch grandchildren, and attend church and bible studies. Harry was always on the lookout for tools at garage sales to donate to toolboxes for new truck drivers. He showed kindness to many people and often offered his home and resources to help others.
He is preceded in death by his mother, Elinor; father, Donald; stepmother, Katherine; brother, Scott (Fran); several aunts; uncles; and cousins. Surviving family members include his wife, Linda; daughter, Lisa (Tom) Watson; son, Darren Johnston; daughter, Tonia (Wes) Haney; son, Ross Johnston and Kate; sisters, Ann (Dave) Rubin; Connie Hammond; brother, Bruce (Connie) Hammond; grandchildren, Matthew, Dawson, Dillon, Amber, Caleb, Feliciti, Alyssa, and Zoe; nieces; nephews; extended family; and friends.
A graveside service will be held on July 5, 2025, at 11 a.m. MDT at Lutheran Cemetery in Beach, N.D. A celebration of life will be held afterward at the Beach Community Center. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in memory of Harry to the Northwest College Foundation at nwc.edu/foundation/give.