Ernest C. Hammond Jr., a retired Morgan State University physics professor recalled for his work to recruit minorities into the sciences, died of congestive heart failure Sept. 13 at a Randallstown home of a caregiver. The Ashburton resident was 76.
Born in Baltimore, he was the son of Ernest C. Hammond Sr. and Arnetta Williams Hammond. A 1958 graduate of Baltimore City College, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Morgan State University and a master’s degree from Howard University.
He was a captain in the Army Ordnance Corps from 1968 to 1970 and did research at the Aberdeen Research and Development Center. He also served in Vietnam.
In 1970, Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird appointed him as a consultant for the Joint Inter-Service Task Force on Education in Race Relations.
Mr. Hammond became a graduate teaching assistant at Howard’s department of physics in 1962 and taught until 1964. That year he joined the faculty at Morgan State University as an instructor of physical science. He taught courses in chemistry, physics, astronomy, geometry and mathematics.
While teaching at Morgan, he met his future wife, Roselyn Elizabeth Brown, a biology professor at the school.
A 1989 Sun article described his lab work using computer imaging technology from a grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to historically black universities.
“It’s designed to give minority graduate students in science an opportunity to study full time,” he said in the article.
He became an assistant professor of physical science in 1970. He was promoted to the rank of associate professor in the physics department in 1990 and worked as a principal investigator of a NASA research project at Morgan State University until his retirement in 2012.
“He was a pioneer in getting money from NASA to do research,” said a former student, Dr. Kevin Peters, director of the Center for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Education at Morgan State University. “He did research with film shot up in rockets. He studied how cold temperatures and heat affected film. We learned about research and experimentation from him. He would take us students to NASA Goddard. He was able to get equipment. He was even able to get rocks from the moon to study.”
He mentored his students, many of whom when on to advanced degrees.
“He was doing transdisciplinary learning 40 years ago,” said Dr. Peters.
Daria Ibn-Tamas, his godchild and an attorney who lives in Los Angeles, Calif., said Mr. Hammond was “affectionately known as Ernie and had a dry wit and was very social. He was an accomplished violinist and avid supporter of the performing arts.”
She said he was a photography enthusiast and was well versed in astrology and astronomy. He asked his friends’ time of birth so he could create astrology charts. He had a home telescope.
“He encouraged more minorities to pursue careers in science and technology,” said Ms. Ibn-Tamas. “He struggled against the stereotypes that African-Americans cannot do cutting-edge science.”
He worked with the Johns Hopkins University as part of a Space Grant Consortium. In 2002 he joined other scientists to study an evaluation of baseball umpires’ performance during a dispute with Major League Baseball. The World Umpires Association resisted checks on their performance by an electronic system used by Major League Baseball.
Mr. Hammond received the Alan Berman Research Publication Award from the Naval Research Laboratory.
He did scientific research on organic dye lasers, scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. He also did lunar sample analysis.
He spoke out for better physical conditions at his home campus.
In 1985 in a Sun article, he accused state policymakers of “playing a clever numbers game with us. While they were building up Towson State University and University of Maryland, Baltimore County, from scratch, they were doing very little here. So after they succeeded in making Morgan as unattractive as possible, then they could complain our enrollment was down and insist we had to lay off professors.”
At Morgan State, he had been chairman of the committee on admissions, a member of the Faculty Executive Committee, chairman of the Advisory Committee on Recruitment, chairman of the University Parking Committee and an alternate to the Morgan State University Senate.
In 1985 he was recognized by the City of Baltimore as an outstanding educator in the field of space science and technology. He was a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity and was a fellow of the African Scientific Institute.
Services will be held at noon Wednesday at the March West Funeral Home, 4300 Wabash Ave.
Survivors include two cousins, John Williams of Gilbert, Ariz., and Terry Williams of Baltimore. His wife of 38 years died in 2011.
