Saturday, July 16, 2016
Don Hamer was my Uncle, my friend and hero. Uncle Don was an extremely generous human being and made huge differences in the lives of thousands including my little family and many others who will read this. He was an adventurer, a thinker and a peaceful soul who could relish the simple pleasures. He was also self made, a true genius and a pioneer in the micro chip field. He founded and owned a hugely successful chip company in which everyone shared in the profits, just because "it was the right thing to do".
Despite his wealth and vast accomplishments, he lived modestly in a small, modern and idyllic home tucked into the beautiful Pennsylvania woods as he gave and gave and gave some more. Aside from his huge financial contributions to higher education and other causes, he helped save wild areas, protected clear flowing streams and restored prairies through his gifts.
He was active into his eighties, climbed, snorkeled, traveled the world, hiked and actually took up skiing in his fifties. He was a lover of nature, here on the Illinois prairie, in the waters off Tortola and in the forested mountains of Pennsylvainia where he live since the mid sixties. He was many things to many people but the natural world was our personal connection.
He and I hiked together in Maine and Pennsylvania when he was in his 70's. He changed my life in showing me Detwieler Run Natural Area in PA on one hike. That little hike to a true Old Growth Forest changed my life. First it started my quest to document the few remaining old growth forests in the eastern US with my 4x5 field camera but then helped to define my passion for giving downed and fallen trees another life through table and furnituremaking.
He was always an inspiration and I will always be so proud of him for his being who he was. My heart is heavy today and the world is a little less bright knowing he is no longer walking with us on this spinning blue sphere. So long Uncle Don, I will see you in every old forest, on every mountain path and in every clear flowing stream.
