HAMMOND, Paul

Surrounded by family and held close in the hearts of all of who knew him, Paul Hammond slipped away peacefully today, Wednesday, July 25, at Hospice Wellington in Guelph, Ontario. He was 54 years young. 

George and Joan Hammond’s middle son grew up in a large, boisterous family of boys in Ingersoll, Ont. With a mop of dark brown hair and large brown eyes, Paul was inquisitive and chatty as a boy, just as he was as a man (except with less hair). He always loved gadgets, machines and vehicles. His mom Joan recalls Paul, whose pie-in-the-sky dream was to open a family diner, checking on the Sunday dinner with an oral thermometer; the family ate bologna that night after the ham ended up full of broken glass and mercury. He enjoyed having the latest toy, whether it be a programmable thermostat, a remote control drone, or Amazon’s Alexa.

The vehicle remembered perhaps most fondly was the baby blue Cortina in which he took his girlfriend Frances on dates and to the prom. Paul and Frances were inseparable since Grade 10 at Ingersoll District Collegiate Institute (IDCI) and attended York University in Toronto together. (Quick story: Paul was enlisted by cousin Maria to videotape her wedding. The resulting video captured a little bit of the wedding, and a lot of Frances.) They married March 12, 1988 and started their own rambunctious family of boys -- Michael, 27, Evan, 24, and Lucas, 18 -- with the bonus of a baby girl, Annie, now aged 14, who inherited her dad’s gift of the gab. Together, Paul and Frances shared much laughter, adventures, and challenges too, the most difficult being Lucas’s battle with cancer starting when he was four years old. The experience made the pair powerful advocates for families with children living with cancer; they are founding members of the Katelyn Bedard Bone Marrow Association in Windsor, Ontario. Upon returning to Guelph, Paul was recruited to join the Children’s Foundation of Guelph and Wellington where he was recently named Vice Chair. Paul believed in service to others, and in this small way he could give of his talents.

After graduating from university with a BA in Political Science, Paul worked a variety of odd jobs including mall Santa and insurance salesman before landing a career at Chrysler. He was recruited by the Electrical Safety Authority as the Director
of Human Resources and later on, Vice President of HR. Early on in his career at ESA he created an employee recognition program. A program that highlighted extraordinary stories that people were a part of. This June, the committee decided to rename one of the awards the “Paul Hammond Extraordinary Story Award”.

As he battled cancer, Paul arranged special trips with those he loved the most. In the last few months of his life, he and Frances went to Las Vegas to see Chris Angel and Cirque du Soleil; to Holland with brother-in-law and best bud Jim and father-in-law Tony; to Universal Studios in Florida with his precious daughter; and to California with his three sons. He also arranged for the Hammond clan to spend a week in Cape Cod; he’ll be with them in spirit when they go later in August. 

Paul is survived by wife Frances (nee Smulders); children Michael (Courtney), Evan (Nicole), Lucas, and Annie; grandchildren Riley and newborn Findlay; parents George and Joan; brothers Rob (Marnee), Mark (Kelly), Dave (Bonnie), Brad (Christy); father-in-law Tony; in-laws Sharon & Neil, Marilyn & Peter, David & LauraBeth, Jim & Helen; nieces and nephews Nicole (Dave), Blair (Pam), Kyle (Jess), Kelsey (Grant), Isaac, Renee, Grant, Emmett, Conor, Noah, Jessie, Charlie, Leo, and Willem, great nieces Brooklyn, Eve, Camryn, Halle, and Genna. He is predeceased by niece Amanda and mother-in-law JoAnne.

Thank you to everyone who drove Paul to the hospital, dropped off casseroles at the house, and sent uplifting messages of support. Thank you to the medical professionals (Drs. Petrella, Wright, Doherty at Sunnybrook, Dr. Cockburn, Morrison, Murdoch at GGH) who gave him good care and the hospice staff who made sure he was comfortable in his last days. 

Family and friends will be received at Gilbert MacIntyre and Son Funeral Home, 1099 Gordon St, Guelph, on Saturday, July 28, 2018 from 2-4, and 7-9pm. A funeral service for Paul will be held in the funeral home chapel on Sunday, July 29, 2018 at 2 p.m. Cremation to follow. Donations in Paul’s memory to the Katelyn Bedard Bone Marrow Foundation or the Children’s Foundation of Guelph and Wellington would be appreciated by the family. Donation cards are available at the funeral home, (519-821-5077)