Conrad Hammar

Conrad H Hammar was born January 29th, 1928 in New Haven,CT. His father was teaching at Yale University and moved to other universities before receiving tenure at Columbia, Missouri, during Conrad's high school years. He joined the Navy in 1945 at the age of 17 and served for 3 years after which he joined his parents in Berlin, Germany. There he met his wife, Mary Textor. They married in Frankfurt Germany on June 21st, 1950 moving to MN to attend the University. He completed his Masters degree while helping to run the family farm west of Saint James, then commuted to college seeking a PhD and took over the farming operation. Conrad was active in DFL politics and ran for state and federal offices. In the mid 60's the family moved to the Washington D.C. area where Conrad joined the Garnett-Ross Corporation working on seed hybridization, continuing to work the family farm in St. James during the farming season. In the early 80's the couple sold their home near Washington, replacing it with one in Donna, TX, where they wintered. Conrad was active in farming until his death. Conrad is survived by his wife, Mary (Textor) Hammar of St. James; children - Conrad T of St. James, Katrina of Mankato, Christopher of Donna, TX, and Sonja of Seattle, WA; a sister - Ruth Goodwin of Rancho Bernardo, CA. He is preceded in death by his brother Sigmond, his parents, and brother John who passed just one month earlier on Oct 14th, 2010.