Douglas James Hammer

Douglas J. Hammer, (Doug) 81 of Wheat Ridge, Colorado, passed away September 13, 2021, at his home after an extended battle with heart disease and dementia. Doug was born September 21, 1939, in Oakmont, Pennsylvania to Norma and Sigmund Hammer. Doug grew up in Dorseyville, Pennsylvania and graduated Aspinwall High School in 1958. Upon graduation he attended Duquesne University in Pittsburgh where he met the love of his life, Elizabeth (Beth) Murphy of O’Hara Township, Pennsylvania at the Montrose Inn along the Allegheny River in O’Hara Township, Pennsylvania. They soon discovered they enjoyed drinking and dancing in the blues clubs of the Hill District of Pittsburgh (perhaps too much) as they both found themselves no longer attending university. In late August 1963, they continued in the tradition of Beth’s family (as her Grandmother Margaret Roth and later her Mother Elizabeth Schettley), eloped to Cumberland, Maryland with the marriage taking place September 5, 1963, in the First Presbyterian Church. The first year of the marriage was spent in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania of Shadyside where Doug was employed at a local hospital as a Stationary Engineer (he worked in the physical plant of the hospital). Unfortunately, he was let go a week before the birth of their only child. A few weeks later Doug ran into a high school acquaintance who steered him in the direction of the career that would span 40 years as a coal mining equipment salesman with Schroeder Brothers and later Schroeder Industries. Throughout those years he transferred to Beckley, West Virginia, Price, Utah and finally the Denver, Colorado metro area where he and Beth have spent the last 45 years. He was a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and the Rocky Mountain Coal Mining Institute. Doug fully immersed himself in his career, traveling 5 days a week to the mines of Appalachia while living in West Virginia and most of the intermountain west while in Utah and Colorado. In his spare time, he enjoyed tinkering with his 1962 Chevrolet Corvair rag top Monza, alpine skiing in Colorado, enjoying wine, margaritas, grilling steaks on his charcoal grill, eating at the now defunct Tortilla Flat, traveling with Beth upon retirement and terrorizing his friends with his driving. Doug is survived by his spouse, Beth of Wheat Ridge, Colorado and their only child, Megan Elizabeth Hammer (spouse Joyce A. Rihanek) of Edwards, Colorado and his siblings Kirsten Gardner of Chevy Chase, Maryland and Paul Hammer of Zelienople, Pennsylvania and many nieces and nephews across the country. Doug is preceded in death by his parents Norma and Sigmund Hammer, his stepmother Doris Hammer and his siblings Mary Alice Hammer, Laura Inglis, John Hammer, Sigmund Hammer and Ludvig Hammer and cats Gwendolynn, Jet and Kenny, grand-dog Juneau and grand-cats Dakota and Samson. There will be no service or memorial. Doug’s wish was to be cremated and have his ashes spread by Megan on Ruthie’s Run on Aspen Mountain during ski season this winter. If you wish, please donate to the American Heart Association or the Alzheimer’s Association in his name. Beth, Joyce and Megan would like to thank Human Network Systems, Inc. and Lutheran Hospice for making his last days as comfortable as possible. In closing, we hope Doug is drinking all the Iron City beer he can find and cruising around in his Corvair.