200 Attend Private Services for Armand Hammer

A more personal side of industrialist and philanthropist Armand Hammer emerged at private funeral services Thursday.

At an hour-long service attended by 200 people at Westwood Memorial Park, family members, friends and former business associates remembered the 92-year-old chairman of Occidental Petroleum Corp., who died Monday, as an “indomitable, tenacious” man who loved jokes, eating--especially dessert--and even helped plan his own funeral.

As he had been so many times before, Hammer was recognized for his business acumen, financial support for humanitarian causes, art collection and efforts to improve U.S.-Soviet relations. But this time, Hammer’s 35-year-old grandson, Michael A. Hammer, also recalled a man who doted on his two small great-grandsons, showered them with presents and once even appeared “with a plastic kiddie pool tied on top of the limousine.”

Ray H. Irani, Hammer’s successor as chairman and chief executive officer of Occidental, recalled Hammer, who was educated as a physician, as a boss who “thought of himself first and foremost as a problem-solver,” and would often say: “‘If there’s a problem, come and see the doctor.”’

Pondering why Hammer spent so much time and money on causes ranging from helping disaster victims to funding cancer research, attorney Arthur Groman, a longtime friend, said Hammer had greatly admired his father, Julian Hammer, a doctor “who never turned away a patient because he was unable to supply the fee. I think Julian’s conduct established a model that Armand strove to emulate all of his life.”

Hammer’s well-known ego and eye for posterity was also remembered, although indirectly.

Rabbi Harvey Fields of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple, who officiated at the service, recalled Hammer “summoning me to his office,” about three years ago, “telling me with a twinkle in his eye, ‘We have to prepare for my funeral.’ ”

Among those attending Thursday’s service were Mayor Tom Bradley, the Rev. Robert Schuller, actor Danny Thomas, columnist Abigail Van Buren and Metromedia chairman John Kluge. “It would be futile to attempt a eulogy,” said Bradley, who was one of the speakers, “because he lived his own eulogy.”

A public memorial service is scheduled for Jan. 4 at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple.