OBITUARY: 

Dr. William S. Hammond, 7 May 1931 to 4 February 2021. 

We just found the announcement on 10 May 2021 of the passing of our friend Bill Hammond. I have known Bill in the Colorado Archaeological Society (CAS) for going on forty years, and while Bill was not particularly interested in rock art he was willing to discuss almost anything concerning archaeology at length. This made him a excellent collaborator and valued friend. About 12-years ago Bill recommended to the CAS board that I replace him as CAS representative on the Board of History Colorado and the Archaeology and Historic Preservation Committee which he was leaving because of ill health. I have been honored to serve there in his stead ever since.

I am not going to list his lifetime of accomplishments, descendants, education, and all of the other traditional required contents of an obituary. That can be looked up in the Denver Post obituary. This is intended instead, to be a short reminiscence of a friend.

The last time I saw Bill in person he came over because he knew that I had a digital microscope. He produced a pill bottle that contained a small piece of bone with a dot pattern along the edge that had been recovered in the excavations at Ken-Caryl which he led for many years. We spent a happy half-hour examining this fragment of bone trying to picture what was missing from the shape of what we had. It was pretty clearly a bone pendant with the delicate dot pattern, and we had the joy and satisfaction of the search for knowledge together. Those who knew him knew his gentle excellence as well as his passion for knowledge. I will miss Bill, as will the whole of the Colorado Archaeological Society. The smile says it all.