Ulysses
B. Hammond was a high school student in Washington, D.C., when he read
an article that shocked him. The article said that African Americans were
intellectually inferior, he says. Hammond immediately vowed to prove the
writer wrong. "We were ready to show that we could compete,"
he says. "That day sparked a fire. I felt that I had received an
excellent education at McKinley Tech and the public schools of D.C."
Further signs of Hammond’s determination were
shown in 1969, during high school, when he convinced The Washington
Post editors to recognize McKinley’s basketball team, rather
than a suburban team, as being No. 1 in the region.
Hammond continued to achieve after high school. He
earned a bachelor's degree in political science at Kenyon College in Gambier,
Ohio, and later received both a master’s degree in public administration
and a juris doctorate degree from Wayne State University Law School in
Detroit.
Ulysses B. Hammond
He currently is vice president for administration
at Connecticut College, where he serves as the chief administrative and
business operations officer, and is coordinator of the college’s
legal and community affairs.
Previously, he served as chief executive officer of the District
of Columbia Courts from 1990 to 2000, and was the first African American in
the United States to administer an appellate and general judicial court system.
Hammond’s professional experience capped a 22-year career as a judicial
administrator, during which he also served as associate state court administrator
for the Michigan Supreme Court and as court executive for the Third Judicial
Circuit Court in Detroit.
"After
you have done all you can, you just stand."
Hammond’s numerous honors and awards for leadership
and service include the 2006 Connecticut Man of the Year Award, and the
"Measure of a Man" Award from the Washington Inter-Alumni Council
of the College Fund/United Negro College Fund and the Tutoring for Success/Preparing
Tomorrow’s Leaders Today program in New London, Conn.
Hammond says he seeks to live by the words of gospel
singer Donnie McClurkin, "After you have done all you can, you just
stand."
