Constance Jane Hammerstad, a former secretary at Northwestern University, studied design with futurist inventor R. Buckminster Fuller and later worked as his personal assistant. Mrs. Hammerstad, 51, formerly of Mt. Prospect, died of breast cancer Monday, May 5, in a Salt Lake City nursing home. Born in Evanston, Mrs. Hammerstad grew up in Mt. Prospect and graduated from Prospect High School in 1969. She studied design with Fuller at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, receiving a bachelor’s degree in 1974. She continued to study with Fuller at International College in Los Angeles and received a master’s degree in 1977. She moved to Philadelphia and worked for several years as his personal assistant. She returned to the Chicago area in the early 1980s and received a master’s degree in literature from Northwestern University in 1986. She worked on the side as a hot-walker at Arlington Park for horse trainer Bud Delp. She was a longtime horse enthusiast. The job “was a labor of love,” said her brother, Steve Thelander. She went to work as a secretary at Northwestern after graduation. In the early 1990s she moved to Salt Lake City, where she met her husband, John, and worked as an office manager for the University of Utah Health Sciences Center until last fall. In 2002 she volunteered at the bobsled and skeleton venues for the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. Since her college days Mrs. Hammerstad had played competitive bridge and competitive volleyball. She also enjoyed spelunking. An amateur painter, she recently spent two weeks painting in Italy. A member of Mensa, Mrs. Hammerstad was “a voracious reader and excellent writer as well,” her brother said. “She had great command of the language and it showed every time she spoke.” Other survivors besides her brother and husband include her parents, Jerome and Janet Thelander, and a sister, Nancy Vassal. A service will be held Saturday in Salt Lake City.
