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An Appreciation
To the rest of the world, Michael Hammer, who died at 60 last week from an apparent brain hemorrhage while bicycling Aug. 22 in the Berkshires, was best known as a management consultant, if not guru, and co-author of the 1993 best-seller, "Reengineering The Corporation." The book sold two million copies, revolutionized the business world and led to his being named by Time magazine in 1996 as one of "America's 25 Most Influential People," along with the likes of Al Gore, Martha Stewart, Frank Gehry and Oprah Winfrey.
But to the Jewish community of Annapolis, Md., he was the legendary native son who made it big in the real world, the boy genius who went on to consult, teach, write and lecture around the world to top government and business leaders, while staying loyal to his deep Jewish roots.
To me, he was my oldest friend, a centerpiece of my earliest memories, because we grew up together in a small town with one synagogue, where Michael's dad was the cantor and mine was the rabbi.
We were the only two Sabbath-observant boys our age in that community and we spent more time with each other in our formative years than with anyone else, starting at the Annapolis Elementary School, where Michael skipped first grade because he could already read (highly uncommon in those days).
As the story goes, when his disbelieving teacher wanted to test his claim on the first day of school, she asked Michael to pick a book from the classroom shelf and read to her.
"Where should I start?" he asked.
"From the beginning," she said.
"Alright," he shrugged, opened the book and began, "Copyright 1952, Houghton Mifflin..."
After six years of public school, we were classmates at a Baltimore yeshiva through high school, coming home to Annapolis for weekends. Then Michael, a Merit Scholar, headed off for MTT, where he earned a bachelor's in math, a master's in electrical engineering and a doctorate in computer science. He taught at MIT and received tenure there before becoming a management consultant in 1987 and writing four books on his radical theories about rethinking the way businesses should operate.
Growing up, I got used to congregants,...