Industry leader passes away

Hammer was one of ALCC’s founders and sixth president, and an early recipient of the ALCC Bob Cannon Lifetime Achievement Award. He was the first Coloradan to serve as president of Associated Landscape Contractors of America (now the National Association of Landscape Professionals). 

 

Hammer’s career in the landscape industry started with a college degree in horticulture. During his service in the US Air Force, he landscaped an entire air force base on a Pacific island. 

 

Hammer founded Lew Hammer, Inc. in 1952 after he and his wife Suzy moved to Denver. Lew Hammer, Inc. was the core landscape company that became Randall & Blake, Inc., RBI and most recently, American Civil Constructors. He also founded and later sold REVEX an erosion control company.

 

Hammer is remembered for his commitment to professionalism both as a businessman and as an industry volunteer. In 1993, his colleague Rick Randall commended him in an article in Colorado Green for “formulating a landscape business more like other professional services firms instead of like a gardener running things from his overall pockets.”