Howard Brockman (‘Brock’) Hamacher was born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1926. During the Second World War he served with the US Navy from 1944-46, before attending the University of Kanas, where he graduated in the early 1950s. He appears to have remained in academia and by 1960 was an Assistant Professor at the University of Florida, in Gainesville. He travelled to the UK in 1964 and is recorded as having enrolled on the post-graduate course at the Architectural Association’s Department of Tropical Architecture, in London. Hamacher was registered on the Department’s ‘General Course’, which he successfully completed in 1965 and was awarded the AA Diploma in Tropical Studies. He returned to the University of Florida and by 1972 held the position of Co-Chairman for the Department of Architecture. He continued to teach within the Department and hold senior administrative roles in the university until his early death, aged 57, in 1984.

Sources

• Architectural Association Student Register, 1945-71. AA Archives
• Architectural Association Council Minutes, 19th July, 1965
• National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 1926–1975; Record Group Number: 147; Series: Post-WWII through Vietnam Era Selective Service Records, Missouri; Series Number: 147-76-0298
• Mitchell, B., Wittenberg, D. ‘A Study of Florida’s Future Needs For Architects: 1973‘, University of Florida, 1974, p 10.
• ‘Faculty Positions Vacant’, Architectural Record, March 1980, p 196.
• Obituary: Howard B ‘Brock’ Hamacher. Gainesville Sun, 26th August, 1984