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11/14/1996 12:08:00 AM

Rice Community Mourns the Loss of Ben Hammond

By David Kaplan
Rice News Staff

The Rice community is saddened by the death of Benjamin Michael Hammond, the son of Shepherd School of Music Dean Michael Hammond and his wife Anne. A funeral mass was conducted on Nov. 4 at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Katonah, N.Y.

Hammond apparently died in his sleep on Oct. 28. The cause of death was related to Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, diagnosed when he was a young boy. He was enrolled in a Speech and Hearing Sciences doctoral program offered jointly by MIT and Harvard.

Hammond was born in Milwaukee on Feb. 20, 1967. His family moved to Bedford Hills, N.Y., the following year. In high school he was captain of the varsity lacrosse and soccer teams. He played violin in the orchestra and guitar for the Fox Lane Jazz Band. In his senior year, he organized the school's Oxfam hunger relief effort.

He entered Harvard in the fall of 1985, majoring in chemistry. With his brother Tom he formed a rock band trio, Men of Clay. He wrote the music and lyrics for some of the group's songs. He also played in the Harvard Mozart Orchestra and was musical director of Harvard's dance outreach program Citystep.

After touring and recording with Men of Clay for three years, Hammond went to work with Kirkegaard & Associates, an acoustics firm in Downers Grove, Ill. He helped develop projects involving sound reinforcement and concert hall acoustics. He was responsible for the outdoor sound system for the new Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, Mass., and played an important role in the acoustical refurbishing of Jones Hall in Houston, as well as in the firm's work on Jordan Hall at the New England Conservatory in Boston.

In September of 1994 he was admitted to the Graduate Program in Speech and Hearing Sciences in the joint Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology. In his research, Hammond sought to break new ground by studying the way in which the fibers of the auditory nerve convey speech information in reverberant and nonreverberant surroundings.

He worked in the Eaton-Peabody Laboratory under the supervision of Professor Bertrand Delgutte at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in Boston. Last July he presented his research results at an international conference in Keele, England. The presentation was based on a model he had developed to describe the responses of individual auditory neurons to sound stimuli. Delgutte says Hammond's research was successful and believed his future research plans showed even greater potential.

Nelson Kiang, former director of the Speech and Hearing program in which Hammond was enrolled, describes him as "one of those rare individuals who had long-term vision as well as technical competence. He was a perfectionist in the details of whatever he chose to do. His dream was to combine architectural acoustics, music studies, psychophysics and neurophysiology. This is a unique combination that no one else has been able to integrate in a single career."

Kiang recalls Hammond as being "open, intelligent and happy. I think `shining' would be the one word to best describe Ben's personality. He radiated optimism and helpfulness and was full of energy. He was the very definition of charisma. ... Ben also had a playfulness about him," says Kiang who noted that any Ben Hammond prank had "a certain light touch."

Kirkegaard & Associates audio systems consultant Richard Laidman recalls his former colleague: "Ben came in as an intern and could grab a subject faster than any person I've ever seen. ... He seemed to be on a mission for everything he attacked, and when he was attacking his topics it was joyful. There was something in Ben's nature and upbringing that made him that way and it was uplifting."

Observes George Rupp, the president of Columbia University and past president of Rice, "Like his wonderful parents and his brother, Ben Hammond was full of life. His death is a terrible loss that impoverishes us all. Our hearts go out to Michael and Anne and Tom as they struggle with the unspeakable grief that we sense even if ever so partially because we too share in it."

Several members of the Rice community attended the funeral mass in New York: Elizabeth Gillis, wife of President Malcolm Gillis; David Auston, provost; Carl MacDowell, assistant to the president; Cynthia Allshouse (wife of Board of Governors Trustee J.D. Bucky Allshouse), first vice president, Shepherd Society; Charlotte Rothwell, past president, Shepherd Society; Gary Smith, assistant dean of music, Shepherd School of Music; Richard Brown, chair of Wind, Brass, Percussion and Harp at the Shepherd School, and his wife Susan Radley; and Anita Kruse, wife of Larry Rachleff, music director, Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra.

Auston says of Ben Hammond, "He was a very bright young man with a very wide range of interests. His tragic death cut short a brilliant career."

President Gillis said, "Although we can offer but little to assuage their grief, the thoughts and affections of the entire Rice community are with Michael and Anne Hammond as we mourn with them the loss of Benjamin Michael Hammond, their truly talented son.

"Our expressions of concern are a small measure of the deep regard we hold for Michael and Anne. Ben's many accomplishments were a source of pride for his parents and much admiration by all who know this remarkable family. The loss of their son is keenly felt by all who know them."

MIT is accepting donations in Ben Hammond's name for his program. The address for the contribution is: Speech and Hearing Graduate Sciences Program, c/o Dr. Louis Braida, MIT, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, Mass. 02139.