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At 95, the beat goes on for musician
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C. Clark Hammitt, 95, played in the Ohio State University band and plays snare drum in the Canfield Communty Band. He resides at Park Vista in Youngstown.
By Ashley Luthern
YOUNGSTOWN
Eighty years ago, a Youngstown boy in eighth grade began to play snare drum, and today he continues his lifelong passion with a performance in Poland.
Clark Hammitt, 95, drummed in The Rayen School band, the Ohio State Marching Band and the Canfield Community Concert Band and will perform with the Canfield band at 7 p.m. today at Shepherd of the Valley in Poland.
Hammitt has the distinction of having been in the first “script Ohio” — Ohio State’s signature marching formation that spells out “Ohio” in script design — in 1936, and he has returned to the university’s Horseshoe Stadium many times, joining more than 700 band alumni who make the trip annually.
“During one of the reunions, I was the lead drummer,” Hammitt said. “I was the first person on the field. I don’t know how I contained myself.”
Hammitt plans to be Columbus-bound for the 42nd reunion Sept. 2 when the OSU football team takes on Marshall — and the alumni band will create four script Ohio designs on the field.
In 1986, Hammitt dotted the “i” in Ohio with a group of 1936 alumni. But his drumming experience at Ohio State is only a small part of a musical life.
“Music does something to me. ... It means a lot to play and understand it, knowing that it was created with skill and education, and I can translate it and project it,” he said.
After graduating from OSU with a degree in business administration, Hammitt served in the U.S. Army, then returned home to Youngstown.
He took a job at Strouss-Hirshberg’s department store downtown, holding different positions there for 25 years before retiring in 1982. He then opened his own marketing advisory firm.
Around that time, Hammitt joined the Canfield Community Concert Band and has been playing in it ever since.
“To myself and to many members of the band, he is a true inspiration. He’s always at every rehearsal, at every concert unless he has a health problem,” said Anthony Cebriak, director of the Canfield band.
The dedicated drummer has that same effect in Columbus, said Jonathan Waters, assistant director of the Ohio State University Marching Band.
“My question to our students is ‘What makes a 90-year-old percussionist come back and march with the band down the field?’” Waters said.
“The answer is the love of music, the love of the university and the experience that they had. He certainly embodies that spirit of a lifelong musician. We’re really proud of him.”