Roger K. Hammers

Published 1:15 pm Friday, February 25, 2022

July 1, 1941 – February 14, 2022

Roger Knox Hammers was born in Portland to Jean and Roy Hammers. As a child, he lived in Roseburg, Salem, and Klamath Falls, and graduated from Beaverton High School in 1959 and University of Oregon in 1965.

After working in California and Hawaii, Roger pursued a job in Alaska and asked Jeanne Peterson to move with him to the Last Frontier. They married in San Francisco and moved to Anchorage in 1971. Amongst many great northern adventures, they welcomed son Scott in 1974 and daughter Erin in 1977. After a career in commercial real estate, Roger and his family moved to Sunriver in 1986; he dubbed it “Vacationland, USA.”

Having given up the working life, Roger kept busy with a variety of outdoor activities, including skiing, tennis, biking, kayaking, and taking naps in the sun with his beloved cats. He regularly volunteered for the Pole, Peddle, Paddle, the result of which was an enviably large collection of PPP t-shirts. Roger was an avid photographer and fancied himself a “Junior Reporter,” taking pictures of ski races and other events for the Bulletin and the Sunriver Scene. Roger and Jeanne spent many years traveling the world, visiting tortoises in the Galapagos, climbing Machu Picchu, biking through France, making friends with kangaroos in Australia, and photographing animals in Kenya. They also spent many years living part-time in Saddlebrooke, Arizona.

In recent years, Roger was less able to travel, but he enjoyed spending time with his cat Blaze, making jokes, and pushing aside his walker to entertain his family with a jig. Roger is survived by his wife of 50 years, Jeanne; son Scott of Bend; daughter Erin of Portland; son-in-law Ben, and grandchildren Z, Fox, and Finley Forstag. The family welcomes memorial donations to Partners In Care, https://www.partnersbend.org/donate-to-bend-hospice/