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From Nazema Siddiqui, MD, MHSc
When I was a fellow in Urogynecology, Dr. Hammond was still seeing ambulatory patients in clinic 1J. I remember sharing the workroom with him, hearing about his long-term patients and gaining insights into how to thoughtfully take care for women across the lifespan. As a fellow, the Hammond Fund essentially jump-started my research career; after joining the faculty it continued to serve as a lifeline to allow me to pursue my research interests. Over the years Dr. Hammond helped me to prepare for my oral boards, continued to provide words of encouragement, and always shared his wisdom about academic medicine. I am so grateful to have known him and to have benefited from his knowledge. Every time I think of his passing I am again saddened to have lost one of the great mentors in our field.
From Al Addison, MD, PhD
Remembrances of Charles B. Hammond, MD, friend and mentor: My first remembrance of CBH is when he came to my small home town of Toccoa, GA in a brand new 1951 Ford convertible with a crew cut and the top down. He came to woo "the prettiest girl in town." After a few visits for the same purpose, CBH was dissuaded from coming back again from the big city of Athens. I was not involved in this agreement, nor was I privy to the details thereof. My only recollections at this point in time or that he was debonaire, cordial, self assured, immaculately groomed – and very "well carred."
My next remembrance of CBH was ten years later to join the class behind me at Duke Medical School. This time he brought with him a secret weapon. Her name was Peggy. He was possessed of all the attributes previously described, but somehow seemed somewhat subdued and controlled.
Chuck, as he was now called by the other students, quickly established himself as a outstanding and collegial student. About this time I once asked him how he preferred to be addressed. With a smile, he responded, "how about Sir Charles?"
We both ended up in The Obstetric and Gynecology residency at Duke, he being a year behind me. After a year he left the residency to spend a year in the newly established Research Training Program at Duke. During this interlude, he became seriously ill with hepatitis and was hospitalized. I spent a whole month's salary, which was twenty five dollars, to buy some books and magazines for him. When I delivered them to his room he graciously thanked me. And then said, "but you take them along with you. I don't have time to read them. I have to study." Sadly, I took them and read them when I should be studying too.
After training our paths parted for a few years. With CBH's encouragement and support I finally came back to Duke on faculty, which I had always wanted to do. By then he was a nationally recognized and respected scholar and researcher-soon to become the Departmental and Chair. Thereafter, our relationship matured to a close personal, family and professional one. And obviously there was enough love to prevent him from acting on justifying reasons to fire me, and to prevent me from killing him when I was very frustrated. In the heat of such moments, he was always supportive, and I truly hope that I was too. He was my friend, sponsor, mentor, and tormentor. And again, I truly think and pray that I afforded him the same. I look forward to future such rants followed by a firm handshake and reconciling pat on the back. Like so many others, I shall miss him terribly.
From Claude Hughes, MD, PhD
I was privileged to be the last Resident hired by Dr. Parker and the first Resident to start under Dr. Hammond! Nearing the end of my fourth year of medical school and trying to finish up my PhD dissertation research, writing and defense in Dr. Tyrey's Lab, I needed to use 6 months from January to June leading up to starting the Residency per se. So, I spent JAN-MAR in the lab and APR-JUN in Fayetteville as an extra OB-GYN Resident before starting as a JAR at Duke in JUL. So wow! It was trial by fire but I leaned so very much; multiple forceps deliveries (Dr. Vieta of course!), being on the code blue team covering the whole hospital with Family Medicine Residents as the medical team partners, many GYN cases, etc. Anyway, Dr. Hammond's support of me at that career transition phase helped me to complete an important scientific step and then to equip me to be an experienced OB-GYN doc right from the start!
From Thomas Price, MD
Dr. Hammond was an incredible physician, scientist and mentor. When I arrived at Duke in 2003, he went out of his way to make me feel welcome and referred some of his most challenging patients. Probably most recognized for his Southern gentleman style, he was always polite, calm, professional and loved by his patients. He played a major role in making Duke Ob/Gyn a nationally and internationally renown program. Like many, I will greatly miss him.
From Bob Stillman, MD
During my tenure at Duke for my Residency (and Administrative Chief year) 1973-1977, Chuck was my one true mentor in reproductive medicine.
Chuck and Peggy, always gracious to Linda and I – even though I was fondly referred to as "that Yankee" – but his being a role model and support to me I remember always. And, yes, there were certainly moments of drama and angst – like Chuck courageously discharging a Duke family member before Gyn surgery for refusing the Pre Op exam from the first Black JAR. Or Chuck slumping into a chair early one morning into a patient presentation conference, still in scrubs with mask dropped below his chin, after a long night of surgery with our Urology colleagues. This second surgery followed discovery of no post-op urine output/bilateral ureteral obstruction after vaginal hysterectomy for severe uterine prolapse on his patient – and they were presenting that very patient while she still lay in the Recovery Room! The Buffalo struck.
Of import to me, however, is an example of Chuck's mentorship: knowing I was interested in an academic career, Chuck honored me by offering me a Fellowship position in REI at Duke following my Residency, but he urged me not to take it as training in and being in contact with various academic centers and leaders rather than just one would be an advantage for me. As that true mentor, he then helped me secure a Fellowship with Ken Ryan in Boston and then post Fellowship work at NIH with the incomparable Griff Ross and Mort Lipsett, this latter where he had done his training and work on Gestational Trophoblastic Disease just a few years prior.
If any Fellow from my subsequent years as Division Director at George Washington might consider me to be their mentor, it is because I followed the lead of this fine person and glorious academician. I remain proud – and remain admired – for being fortunate to have been at Duke and with Chuck Hammond.
From Clifton Wheeler, MD
My memories of Dr. Charles B. Hammond ("Chuck") go back approximately 60 years. When I was 14 years of age, I had the privilege of working for Dr. Joseph Markee, chairman of Duke Anatomy Dept. and Dean of Admissions for Duke Medical School. My mother was Dr. Markee's executive secretary. I worked helping embalm cadavers, copy films (frame by frame) for him, and any other task for which I could be of use. I remember Chuck walking the halls during those years in the medical school overlooking the quad. Little did I know that he would ultimately become my mentor, professor, chairman, colleague, and friend. Dr. Markee detected my interest in possibly becoming a physician and counseled me as to where to go to college with a pre-med major and the path by which I had the best chance of Duke Medical School. I worked and it worked. I had exposure to Chuck occasionally during those years, but my area of interest became obstetrics and gynecology. I was accepted for residency at Duke during Dr. Parker's chairmanship, and during the course of medical school and residency, I had the privilege of being taught and mentored by Chuck. I had the privilege of doing some work with Lee Tyrey in the lab for evaluation of HCG under Chuck's perusal. As end of residency approached, I was encouraged by Chuck to consider Fellowship in reproductive endocrinology, but I was anxious to get out into practice and migrated to Florida where I have been since and now retired. Via the Carter Society, my friendship with Chuck and the many wonderful mentors in my training has lived on and been truly a great blessing in my life. I love Chuck Hammond and Peggy. He will sorely be missed. He lived a most fruitful life and I was privileged to have been his friend and to reap the benefits of that friendship.
From Clemens Grosskinsky, MD
At the end of my residency, I had my exit interview in the "Blue Zone" with Dr. Hammond. Dr. Hammond (or Chuckles, as he was affectionately known among some of my fellow residents) had the ability to make me feel comfortable and appreciated, a talent which not all the faculty shared with him. He congratulated me on having matched in an REI fellowship and said "I'm glad for the specialty." Now, of course, this is open to interpretation—glad that I was not going to be a general Ob/Gyn, instead ending up in a (sub)specialty where I could do relatively little harm, or glad that I would bring whatever meager talents I might possess to his own subspecialty.
At any rate, he asked—innocently, I'm sure—where I had matched, and I, somewhat sheepishly, said "Chapel Hill." He seemed surprised and said: "Well, Clem, I'm sure we can find you a fellowship position here at Duke." This put me in an awkward position, and my mumbled response has been obscured by the charitable mists of amnesia.
What I remember distinctly, though, were Dr. Hammond's parting words as I left his office on my way to Chapel Hill: "Remember, Clem, it's missionary work!"
From Edward C. Halperin, MD, MA
The department of obstetrics and gynecology at Duke had an extraordinary history of leadership. There were only three chairs of the department over the 71 year span from 1931 to 2002: F. Bayard Carter, Roy Parker, and Charles Hammond. Dr. Parker had a deep, deep voice. My first encounter with him was by telephone in 1983 within in my first month as an attending physician: “Dr. Halperin, please report to the operating room tomorrow morning for the application of contra cervical radium.” Insofar as Dr. Parker had not asked me to see the patient in question, do a consultation, offer an opinion on the role of radiation therapy, nor did he seem to know that no one had used radium for many years, I had thus had a startling introduction to Duke.
If you had gone to a Hollywood central casting office and asked them to find someone to play the role of the dignified Southern gentleman academic chair, the casting office would have selected Dr. Parker’s successor: Dr. Hammond. He had dropped out of The Citadel after his junior year of college to be admitted to Duke Medical School in an era when a BS degree was not required for admission. Several decades later The Citadel got around to giving him an honorary bachelor’s degree. Except for about two years doing a gestational trophoblastic disease fellowship at the NIH, he spent his career at Duke from the day he walked into the building as a first year medical student. About 20 years ago I figured out that he had passed his approximately 45-50 year anniversary at Duke and Paul Newman and I hosted a dinner in his honor at the University Club.
When we decided to host the dinner I had one of my most memorable conversations with a fellow clinical department chair.
“We’re going to have a dinner in honor of Charles Hammond.”
“Why? Is he sick?”
“No, he’s fine.”
“Why? Is he retiring?”
“No. It has come to our attention that he’s just passed a milestone in his years of service at Duke and we’re going to celebrate that.”
“You mean to tell me we’re going to have a dinner just in order to be nice?”
“Yes. To be nice.”
“Hmm. Being nice? Seems unprecedented amongst the Duke clinical department chairs to me.”
There were several episodes where I felt in need of the wise counsel of an experienced chair as to how to conduct myself as a young chair. I would go see Dr. Hammond.
“Dr. Hammond, one of my departmental has come to see me to tell me about serious marital problems. They have sought my advice. How should I handle that?”
“Edward, y’all have a marriage counseling diploma on your wall?”
“Of course not Dr. Hammond.”
“Then I believe that’s your answer. Don’t you dare give any marital advice. Your staff member might be stupid enough to listen to you. You tell that you’ll give them as much time off as they need. You tell them that you’ll make a referral to a counselor. Otherwise, you be quiet yet supportive.”
Then there was my query about a distraught faculty member.
“Dr. Hammond, while trying to discuss a change in their position one of my faculty members burst into tears. I didn’t know what the right thing to do was so I excused myself and said I would come back later. Was that wrong?”
“Edward, what do y’all see on my credenza over my right shoulder?"
“A box of tissues, Dr. Hammond.”
“That would be correct. What y’all do in the situation you describe is stay seated. Take your right hand and grasp the box of tissues and hand them to the faculty member. Then you are to say nothing and sit politely with your hands folded until they’re done. Then you resume the conversation.”
I immediately walked back to my office and told my beloved assistant, Ruth, to order a box of tissues for the office.
He was a tall, broad shouldered man with a deep voice, slow gait, and wire rimmed glasses. I never saw him show any evidence of having a temper. During a discussion, once, about Roe v. Wade and changing attitudes towards abortion, I remember him telling me about a patient in the pre-Roe era:
“I had a married woman dying as a result of a criminal abortion. Before she died she looked up at me from the hospital bed and said ‘Why is it necessary that I die because I was born a woman and, therefore, am capable of getting pregnant?’”
It was the only time I heard anger in his voice tempered with world-weariness and sorrow.
May his memory be for a blessing.
From Robert L. Harris, MD
When I interviewed for Urogyn fellowship in 1994, I distinctly remember how nervous I was and how I felt somewhat out of place, being the only applicant from Mississippi. Dr. Hammond quickly accepted me and our common bond of southern gentility emerged. He was so engaging and respectful to me then, and once at Duke, our relationship continued and he was always available for a quick chat, to give advice, or just to sit and talk. In short, he knew how to lead and he always made me feel like an important part of the team at Duke OBGYN.
From Phil Pearce, MD, FACOG
I got to know Chuck while we were both in Duke Medical School, though not well at that time because he was a class behind me. We had a little overlap in our training during our residency years but most of that time I was either in the military service out of the country or he was at the NIH. I got to know him better when he returned to the Duke faculty at which time I was in practice in Durham. I found Chuck to always be collegial, gracious, very well informed and happy to share his knowledge with others and I treasured our relationship. I thoroughly enjoyed the time we spent with Chuck and Peggy at the Bayard Carter Society meetings over the past 50 plus years.
From Andrew Berchuck, MD
Ten favorite Chuck (and Peggy) Hammond memories.
1) The M&M conferences he led so brilliantly and compassionately in Duke South in the pre-Powerpoint era, with a resident writing the details on the chalk board as the case was presented.
2) In 1988 I informed Dr. Hammond that my AGOS young investigator grant was “approved but not funded” due to fiscal constraints. I got a call 24 hours later from AGOS to inform me that the grant was now funded.
3) Hearing stories about his time at NCI learning to give methotrexate for treatment of GTD, and coming back to Duke and setting up the Southeastern Regional GTD center.
4) My first annual faculty review when he laid out his expectations, and I had the temerity to tell him his bar was too low. Could see he was smiling on the inside.
5) Departmental holiday parties at the Hammond’s home with Pimento Cheese sandwich appetizers.
6) Hitching a ride home from an AGOS meeting at the Homestead (circa 1990) in the big white BMW with Chuck and Peggy. I think Chuck built the car himself in his garage.
7) The only surgery we did together was on a Duke employee (and now 25 year ovarian cancer survivor) who I still see annually. At that time using the bovie for hemostasis was rather new. I buzzed a bleeder on the ureter and thought Dr. Hammond was going to faint. Or fire me when he regained his composure.
8) Playing in Chuck’s beloved Golden Speculum tennis tournament held every year on the Duke East campus as part of resident’s day.
9) The many (much needed) lessons on Southern (versus New York) diplomacy and persuasion from Dr. Hammond, also known as the velvet harpoon.
10) Having lunch with semi-retired Chuck and my son Jacob, who was a Medical Student, in the Duke South Cafeteria in 2012 because I wanted him to meet one of my most influential mentors.
