Posted: 9/18/02

Coin flip sent Hammonds to Forest Lake

Cliff Buchan
News Editor

Russ Hammond never had far to walk to school. For most of the 30 years that he taught at what was then the high school in Forest Lake, Hammond was just a stoneís throw away from the classrooms where he taught.

It started that way in 1946 when he and his wife, Solveig, built a home on SW 3rd Avenue, not a full block away from what is today the Central Learning Center. From 1946 until his retirement in 1970, Hammond would make the daily stroll from home to work.

During three decades of teaching here, Hammond became a well respected teacher and is remembered as a disciplinarian who went to extra measures to make sure the kids in his shop classes listened and learned.

Hammondís daily journey to his teaching job in Forest Lake was short. But the manís journey to Forest Lake was far from short and took place thanks to a coin flip.

The Hammonds today live the quiet life in Forest Lake. Both are in their 90s now and relish their time together in the home where they have lived for more than a half century.

A life in Forest Lake was far from Hammondís mind as a kid growing up in Kansas. He was a young man during the depression but learned lifeís tough lessons early on and turned to education as a way to improve his lot in life.

A wanderer

ìI've been on my own since I was 15,î Hammond said, looking back on his early days. ìI would work the harvests when I was in school.î

Hammond was born on Sept. 22, 1910 on a Kansas farm as one of 10 kids. In his early years he would help his father in the harvests and would later go out on his own, traveling north to Nebraska and the Dakotas during the harvest.

ìIíd go out on my own,î he said. ìI had my own tractor and combine. Iíd come back to school in the fall.î

He had tried one semester of college in Nebraska after high school but there was a need to work and the harvest was seasonal. For the next seven years he wandered the western states looking for opportunities.

ìThat was during the depression,î Hammond said. ìThere was no work. I was all over the western states looking for work.î

After seven years of bouncing from state to state, Hammond knew a change was needed. At age 22, his life took a turn, thanks to that coin flip

It was a unique way to make a decision, but a way Hammond still recalls clearly.

ìI had a coin and I flipped it,î he said. ìHeads it was north, tails it was south. It came up heads. That was in 1932.î

He wound up in Lake Crystal in Minnesota where his grandparents were living. He found work on a dairy farm milking cows and took home $10 a month plus room and board.

It led Hammond to another clear decision. ìIím going back to school,î he recalled.

He socked away his farm income and saved $150 to attend the University of Minnesota. He didnít have the money to stay in school, however, and moved back to Kansas. By 1936, after more time of putting money away, he was back in Lake Crystal and attending the nearby college in Mankato.

In 1940 he completed a four-year teaching degree in social studies and industrial arts.

The industrial arts degree was a natural, he says. He has always enjoyed working with wood and as a boy would make toys.

ìIíve always been interested in wood and making things,î Hammond said. ìWe were poor and didnít have money to buy toys.î

Moves to area

Fresh out of college, Hammond made another major life move.

In 1940 he was hired as an industrial arts teacher and football and basketball coach at Chi-High in Lindstrom. With an annual salary of $1150, Hammond was no longer looking at $10 a month and room and board for milking cows.

After just a year in Lindstrom, Hammond heard from school officials in Forest Lake who wanted his services. ìWhen they offered $150 more, I grabbed it,î Hammond said.

It was just one short year in Lindstrom, but it was a year that would set Hammondís life course. As a single man in Lindstrom, it didnít take Hammond long to catch the eye of another single teacher, Solveig, who had come to work in Lindstrom in 1934.

Marriage, Marines

Solveig was in charge of the library and at first thought nothing of the shop teacher spending time in the library.

ìI found out he wasnít interested in the library at all,î Solveig says with a smile.

ìI had to check out the library and look things over,î Hammond said with a wry smile. ìIt took a little while.î

On Aug. 20, 1941, as Hammond prepared to start his job in Forest Lake, the couple married and moved to their new home town. After just two years of teaching here, Hammond, like many men in the area, went off to serve his country during World War II.

In the summer of 1943, the military draft caught up with Hammond. Rather than be sent to the Army, Hammond enlisted in the Marine Corps.

ìI joined the Marines so I wouldnít have to go out on the water,î Hammond said.

Little did he know what the Marines had in store for the teacher. He was two months shy of his 33rd birthday when he left for torpedo training at the Great Lakes base. ìI never saw one after I left the base,î he says.

He was sent to the South Pacific and assigned to an aircraft carrier. He was part of the attacks on Okinawa and spent his time on the big boat arming planes used in the attack of the Japanese stronghold. Hammond spent his service days dodging kamikaze planes and typhoons.

Russ was one of four brothers in his family who served during World War II. He doesnít make much of his service duty today although he remains a proud member of American Legion Post 225 here.

ìI didnít have any choice,î he says of his military service. ìIt had to be done.î

Back to FL

He left the Marines as a sergeant in November of 1945. He returned to Forest Lake where Solveig was working as a teacher again.

The Hammonds fell into Forest Lake life and never left again. Hammond did not return to the classroom until the fall of 1946, preferring to allow his substitute to keep his job for the balance of the year.

The time did not go wasted. He had earlier purchased the lot on SW 3rd Ave. for $300 and used his time away from school to build his home.

The 1‡ story home was finished in the fall of 1946, but securing the $10,000 loan to build the home wasnít easy. He has not forgotten the words of one local banker who denied his loan request: ìYou are not going to be here very long,î the banker said. ìYouíre a teacher.î

Along with his teaching duties, Hammond also owned the Branch Tree Farm in North Branch from 1957 until 1968. The 210-acre Christmas tree farm provided work for the Hammonds outside of school.

Well respected

Hammond never left, of course, working in ISD 831 as a teacher until 1970 when he retired.

He was legendary for his tough discipline, a trait that he refined while serving in the Marines.

He was all business in class, but out of class was a different guy, Hammond said.

ìWhen I was in school they (students) called me Mr. Hammond,î he said. ìThey lived by it.î

He believed in stern rule.

For kids who might doze off in class, he kept small blocks of wood near his desk that could be pitched to jolt a student from a light slumber.

For repeated violators of classroom rules, Hammond kept special toothbrushes on hand. Students who got out of line would find themselves scrubbing the floor with the brushes.

ìWhen I was lecturing I wanted them to pay attention,î Hammond said.

As a teacher, Hammond said he enjoyed working with kids and seeing them accomplish goals by finishing shop projects. A key lesson for kids, he said, was learning to take on projects they could finish.

ìIf you didnít get it finished, you didnít get a grade,î he said.

Thirty-two years after his retirement, Hammond agrees his form of discipline might not mesh well with todayís rules and regulations.

In 1995, former students honored Hammond with a roast and party. He was presented with a large scale toothbrush in honor of his most famous discipline tool. The brush was signed by many of his former students.

Life today

Now in their 90s, the Hammonds continue to enjoy life in their small home here.

They traveled extensively after their retirement and Hammond also used the time to hunt and fish, two of his favorite hobbies.

Today, the couple spends time reading and watching television. Russ is a regular at local coffee gatherings frequented by many of his former students.

They are members at Faith Lutheran Church here and still enjoy events with the Sons of Norway in Lindstrom.

The couple had no children, but in 61 years of marriage and dual careers in the classroom, the Hammonds believe in their own way they were parents.

ìWe had plenty of kids to take care of when we were teaching,î Solveig said.

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