Sigrid Hammond

Sigrid Hammond, a brainy and vibrant mother, grandmother, colleague, and friend, died suddenly but peacefully in her sleep on Feb. 10. She was 85.

Born Oct. 2, 1940, in Elizabeth, N.J., Elizabeth Sigrid Johnson Hammond was the only child of Martha Holmes Johnson and Earl Kenneth Charles Johnson.

She spent most of her childhood in Baltimore, where family photos show her beaming in braids and casting a suspicious eye at Santa. She later reminisced about taking overnight train rides with her mother to visit relatives in Arkansas and enjoying the maraschino cherries from her father's Manhattans.

As a teen, she studied piano at the Peabody Institute, went to summer camp in the Canadian wilderness, won a local beauty contest, and graduated from the Friends School of Baltimore in 1958.

She was a sophomore majoring in Russian at Middlebury College when she fell in love with a former Friends schoolmate, William Hammond, who was then a student at Harvard. They married in August 1960 and moved into an apartment in Cambridge for his senior year.

The couple would move another nine times over the next 11 years as Bill finished graduate school, served in the Army, and began his career as mathematician. Stops included Boulder, Colo., Lincoln, Mass., Lawton, Okla., Bethesda, Md., Brunswick, Me., Princeton, N.J., and, finally, Albany, N.Y. – where she went on to live for 51 years.

Along the way, Sigrid completed a bachelor's degree from Boston University and gave birth to three children: William Jr. (known in the family as Biff) in 1961, Hollyday (Holly) in 1964, and Martha (Marlé) in 1969.

While living in Princeton, Sigrid became active in local chapters of the National Organization for Women and the American Civil Liberties Union. Among other work, she contributed to a groundbreaking study of gender stereotypes in the "Dick and Jane" books and other children's reading primers.

Once in Albany, Sigrid joined what became a wave of women entering the professional workforce. She graduated from Albany Law School in 1974 – where she was one of a handful of female students – and became a staff attorney for the New York State Public Service Commission, where she served for the next 15 years.

In her early 30s, she learned that she had progressive hearing loss and bought the first of many sets of hearing aids.

Sigrid and Bill divorced in 1982 but remained friends and spoke often.

After leaving the Public Service Commission, Sigrid volunteered as a legal advocate with Domestic Violence Services and Family Matters of Saratoga Springs and Hospitality House of Albany. She also served as a Court-Appointed Special Advocate in Albany County Family Court.

A centerpiece of Sigrid's life was her camp on Schroon Lake in the Adirondacks, which she generously shared with all who knew her – and which has been the scene of 44 summers' worth of weddings, family reunions, parties with friends, and lazy weekends on the beach.

Sigrid was a lover of dogs, word puzzles, nature shows, and sweets. She liked meeting new people and hearing their stories. She had a sarcastic sense of humor and enjoyed a good argument. She made trips to Germany, England, France, Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Cuba, and Costa Rica.

She was a committed free-thinker, and a friend gave her a kayak named the Pagan Queen in her honor. Her apartment at Prestwick Chase in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. – where she moved in 2022 – was piled with well-thumbed magazines. She rarely missed Christiane Amanpour. She died with a book open next to her in bed.

Sigrid was preceded in death by two romantic partners, Nat Smith and Neil Kemp.

She will be missed by her children and children-in-law, William Hammond and Meg Gallien of Saratoga Springs, Hollyday Hammond and Richard Fenton of Saratoga Springs, and Martha Hammond and Avner Gidron of Oxford, England; five grandchildren and one grandchild-in-law, Kenneth Hammond of Princeton, N.J., Sarah Hammond and Joshua Snyder of Seattle, Emma Fenton of Somerville, Mass., and Alexander Hammond-Gidron and Tallulah Hammond-Gidron of Oxford; and one pet, Zorro of Saratoga Springs.

Memorial services will be private. Memorial donations may be made to Planned Parenthood.