David Hummer

1934 - 2016

David Graybill Hummer died on December 17th at Boulder Community Health after a brief illness. He was born on November 4th, 1934, the eldest of four, to Lillian Graybill and John Hummer. After high school he attended Carnegie Tech where he received his B.S. and Master's before moving on to the University College England and receiving his PhD in Astrophysics in 1961. In that year he met his wife Janet Wood and a year later their son Julius was born. Returning to the States in 1965, David became a fellow of JILA, the Joint Institute of Laboratory Astrophysics, located on the CU campus. Around that time he began the construction of their house in Pine Brook Hills where Janet and Julius still live today. In 1979 David opened Boulder Brewing Company, the nation's oldest surviving craft brewery, a move he later described as "the most irresponsible thing I ever did." There are now in excess of 4,000 craft breweries nationwide. Through the 80's, David and Janet had severeal sabbaticals to the Max Plank Institute in Munich which were a source of great enjoyment for them both. Returning to CU, David retired in 1995 but always kept an office in JILA. His great passion was always music and he took great satisfaction as a librarian of the orchestral music at the CU Music School and as a member of its advisory board. A memorial service will be held at Boulder Beer, 2880 Wilderness Place in Boulder, from 2-5 p.m. on Wednesday, January 6, 2016.