Walter Hammond Collection

Collection

Identifier: MC-61

Staff Only

Dates

Creation: 1962 - 2017

Creator

Hammond, Walter (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research in the Archives and Special Collections reading room. Handling guidelines and use restrictions will be communicated and enforced by archives staff members.

Conditions Governing Use

This material may be protected under U. S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S. Code) which governs the making of photocopies or reproductions of copyrighted materials. You may use the digitized material for private study, scholarship, or research. Though the University of Alabama in Huntsville Archives and Special Collections has physical ownership of the material in its collections, in some cases we may not own the copyright to the material. It is the patron's obligation to determine and satisfy copyright restrictions when publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in our collections.

Biographical / Historical

Walter Edward Hammond was born in 1947 in Austin, Texas to Dr. John Hammond, a Professor of Spanish, and Carmela Sierra, from Mexico City, Mexico. Early in his childhood, Hammond's family moved to Fort Worth, where his dad became Chairman of the Foreign Language Department at TCU. Walter went to college first at the Univeristy of Texas at Arlington, graduating with a Bachelors in Aerospace Engineering. After getting married to Susanne Adams in 1971, Hammond and his wife moved to Austin, where Hammond got his Master's in Aerospace Engineering. Hammond then served in the Air Force for 4 years (1972-1976). After living in California for a while, Hammond then moved to College Station, Texas, where he attained 3 degrees from Texas A&M: a MBA, a Master's in Industrial Engineering, and his Doctor of Engineering in Industrial and Systems Engineering.

After receiving his PhD, Hammond moved to the Huntsville Area where he worked within the Redstone Arsenal. Hammond worked for the Air Force, NASA, and Missile Defense Agency, and is currently with Hill Technical Solutions. Hammond has three different books, Design Methodologies for Space Transportation Systems, Space Transportation: A Systems Approach to Analysis and Design, and Beyond the Saga of Rocket Science was published in 2017 and is aimed towards the general public, focusing on the history of rockets spanning from China to modern-day space exploration. Walter wrote Beyond the Saga under a pen name, Walter Sierra, Sierra being chosen for to honor his mother and his Mexican heritage.