Sumpter Trustee William Hamm dies Friday at his home

Sumpter Township Trustee William Hamm died suddenly of an apparent heart attack early Friday at his home, sending township residents who knew him into shock. He was 60 years old.
His wife Chris said she tried to wake him to give him his medication around 2:30 a.m. and couldn’t rouse him. He could not be revived with CPR.
He was pronounced dead at his home.
Trustee Hamm was absent from the Tuesday, Oct. 13, township meeting and board members were following his progress through a back operation by way of text reports from Chris. Finally, there was word that he was out of surgery and doing fine.
He came home from the hospital on Thursday and died the next morning.
Trustee Hamm was also a member of the paid-per-call Sumpter Fire Department and Chris recently completed training for the fire department, as well.
After hearing of Hamm’s death on Friday, 34th District Court Chief Judge Tina Brooks Green called Hamm a public servant to the highest degree, noting he and his wife gave a lot to the community.
Judge Green said her most recent contact with Hamm had been when she went to a Sumpter Township meeting to swear in Patrick Gannon as Police Lieutenant.
She said the next day Hamm sent her a text message that said he was so glad she came out to swear Gannon in and Hamm wanted Judge Green to swear him in when he is elected President of the United States.
“That was a reflection of Bill’s character,” Judge Green said, adding he joked a lot and had a great personality.
“I’ve never heard anyone say anything against him,” she said.
34th District Court Judge David Parrott also remembered Hamm fondly. After the funeral, he said, “When I heard the news on Friday I was shocked. Quite simply, Bill Hamm was an all-around great guy, friend and supporter that I and everyone who knew him will miss deeply. Most tragic is the deep loss to Chris and his family, but also to an entire community that came to rely on his good nature and helpful ways. May he rest in peace.”
Township Supervisor John Morgan said Hamm was an asset to the township in many ways. He recalled how Hamm took a machine and dragged the beach at Banotai Park and didn’t even say he did it. He just did it because it needed doing.
Supervisor Morgan said Hamm and his wife Chris would pick up trash at the park and they volunteered to do whatever needed doing.
“He was an all-around real, good guy,” Supervisor Morgan said. He said Hamm was appointed trustee on April 16, 2008 and was elected to office in 2008 and 2012. He became a fire fighter in 2008.
A large crowd attended Sunday’s viewing at David C. Brown Funeral home and on Monday it was a standing-room-only funeral.
The Fire Department did a last call for Hamm and the Huron Valley Ambulance Honor Guard was on duty. Big fire trucks from Sumpter Township and the City of Belleville flanked the funeral home’s parking lot.
Lots of kind words about Hamm were said, amidst tears, at the service and then people moved on to Tin Pan restaurant in Sumpter Township for a wake.
During the funeral Hamm was eulogized by Sumpter Township Trustee Peggy Morgan.
“I have known Bill for almost two decades and had the pleasure of working with him for almost eight years,” Trustee Morgan said. “Bill Hamm was a friend to all he met and made everyone’s life that much better by just being in it.”
Morgan listed the things Hamm had done for the community and then stated he was a wonderful husband to Chris. “There was never any ‘I’ or ‘Me’ when it came to his wonderful wife Chris,” Morgan said. “It was always ‘we’ and ‘us.’ He has one of the most beautiful marriages I have ever seen and the love he had for Chris showed in everything he did.”
At Monday’s Belleville City Council meeting, Mayor Kerreen Conley asked those present, during their regular moment of silence at the beginning of the meeting, to have thoughts of Bill Hamm, “a community leader and friend.”
At the end of the meeting, several council members commented on Hamm’s death. Councilwoman Kim Tindall said she had a “numbness and shock over Bill Hamm’s death,” which she called an “unspeakable loss to the tri-community.”