Jeff Hammer went to a two-year electronics technical school in Missouri, 1980-1982, and was hired by Hart-Hammer, Inc. in 1983. There, he began learning about registers, grilles, and VAV boxes and quoted small projects to the local contractors.  After his father, Curt Hammer, passed away in 1987, Jeff took over his territory and began selling all Hart-Hammer product lines.

Jeff enjoys fishing, hunting, and working out. He has two kids, 23 and 20 years old.

Following are some of Jeff’s memories of his time in ASHRAE:

“When I was first asked to join ASHRAE it was by Robert (Patch) Flanagan, he was a local engineer who was very invested in our Iowa Chapter.  Chuck Pedersen was the first chapter president I served under, and he was well versed in all the “Roberts Rules of Order” and all about ASHRAE rules and traditions.  He was a great President.  The mid to late 80’s new emerging technologies were DDC controls and they quickly took over pneumatics.  A few years later there was talk that soon all controls would be able to talk to anyone’s control system so an owner was not tied to a specific control contractor or system. Today’s BACnet controls and manufacturers BACnet interface is where that came from.

“My favorite memory about ASHRAE was when I was finishing up as president in 1993, and we had very little money in the chapter’s account.  In 4 years we were scheduled to host the Chapters Regional Conference (CRC) and I remember wondering how we would be able to fund this event. Soon after that, Sam Wray from KJWW in Rock Island was down in Des Moines for a conference and he asked what we were doing for fundraising for our local ASHARE golf outings. I replied, “not much.”

“Sam told me, in so many words, that our chapter was not very smart.  He is the one who recommended we look for tee box sign sponsors, sell mulligans, and solicit donations of prizes for raffle.  By the time CRC 1997 came, we had plenty of money to have a very successful CRC in Des Moines, which was chaired by Mark Allen.  The golf outing continues today to be a major fundraiser money maker for the Iowa Chapter.”