Former Blue Earth mayor Rob Hammond is pictured by the Blue Earth City Hall sign in this photo from 2011.

Former Blue Earth mayor Robert L. “Rob” Hammond has passed away after a long battle with lung disease. He was living in Spirit Lake, Iowa, at the time of his death, a place he had moved to after retiring in Blue Earth.

Hammond was mayor of Blue Earth for 14 years, having been elected in 1999.

Besides being the mayor, Hammond had been active in many organizations and boards in Blue Earth and the area, and remained so even after he had moved to Iowa.

Hammond, who was born in Estherville, Iowa, once related that it was a total act of fate that he ended up moving to Blue Earth in 1976 to live and work.

In a story in the Jan. 17, 2011, Faribault County Register, Hammond tells how after high school graduation – and being named an All-Second Team center on the high school basketball team – he went to the University of Iowa, then Drake Law School for a law degree.

“I worked for a year and a half for the Iowa Insurance Department in Des Moines,” Hammond recalled in the 2011 story. “My job was to field complaint calls from upset members of the public, and act as a go-between with the insurance companies, representing the public.”

He said back then that he was on a canoe trip on the Turkey River in northwest Iowa when he was hit with an epiphany.

“It was a Friday night in the fall, and all the small towns had their football field lights on, just like the movie ‘Friday Night Lights.’ I suddenly realized I really wanted to live in a small town.”

After that decision was made, Hammond then decided to send out his resume to law firms in county seat towns of around 5,000, which was his idea of a small town.

“I thought that would be a nice size city to live in, plus I wanted a town with three law firms,” he said in the article. “I sent out resumes to every law firm in every county seat that size from Des Moines to Minneapolis.”

When he was done, he happened to have three copies of his resume left over. Not wanting to waste them, he sent them to three law firms in a county seat city that was slightly smaller than his target size – Blue Earth, Minnesota.

“The town fit my criteria because it had three law firms,” he said in the article. “The population was under my target level, but it was close.”

He got a response – and a job offer – from Arvid Wendland and Don Callaghan’s law firm in Blue Earth, and decided to take it.

“It was Arvid and Don who stressed community service,” Rob told the Register back in 2011. “So I got involved in the community.”

He sure did. He started by joining the Jaycees. However, he certainly did not stop there.

Over the years he was active on the United Fund board, Swimming Pool Fundraiser group, Blue Earth Area Mentors, Riverside Town and Country Club board, UHD board, Corn Plus board, Blue Earth Industrial Service Corporation (BEISCO), Sertoma Club and the Blue Earth Chamber of Commerce, serving as president in 1988-89.

That was not all, but more can be found in his obituary elsewhere in this issue.

Hammond changed jobs in December of 1987, leaving the law firm and beginning a long career at Bevcomm in Blue Earth.

“I started with the title of comptroller and attorney,” Hammond said. “It changed to general counsel and chief operating officer.”

He did all the legal work for the company and created contracts with other telephone companies, contracts that mainly had to do with the development of cellular phone service.

That included contracts for land easements for cellular towers and underground fiber optic lines. It also had to do with legal agreements with 11 other telephone/communications companies.

When he was not hard at work, or busy being mayor, Hammond had one definite pastime – golf.

“You can usually find me on the golf course four or five nights a week during the summer,” he admitted in the 2011 story. “It is what I love to do.”

Of course, the other thing he was extremely passionate about was doing whatever he could to make Blue Earth a great community to live in. That includes helping create the Blue Earth Community Foundation.

The story about Rob Hammond was in the Jan. 11, 2011 issue of the Register because later that month he was going to be honored as the Chamber of Commerce Community Service Award recipient.

Although, in the story, Hammond says he was somewhat shocked at the honor.

“I was surprised when Shelly (Greimann, Chamber executive director) told me I was going to be given the award,” Hammond said. “I certainly didn’t do it (community service) for any award, I just wanted to serve where I could.”

The community of Blue Earth is pretty lucky that Rob Hammond had those three extra resumes and wanted to send them somewhere and not just toss them in the trash.