Serving in all capacities

He designed Costa Mesa’s first reserve police officer training program, he helped build a medical group that swelled from two to 85 doctors, he’s performed an appendectomy at sea, and he still finds his wife beautiful after 67 years of marriage.

It’s probably fair to say Jack Hammett has done it all.

Today, Costa Mesa City Council members will present Hammett, 87, with a lifetime service award for the many things he’s done for the city and the larger community — the short list includes 22 years on active duty in the U.S. Navy hospital corps, 15 years on the Planning Commission and City Council, posts on state boards for aeronautics and medicine, and service as a reserve police officer for Costa Mesa.

“Jack has just done so much for the city during his lifetime, and I just feel it’s important to recognize that,” said Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor, who recommended the one-of-a-kind award at the suggestion of a fellow veteran and friend of Hammett. “Jack is one-of-a-kind, so it’s appropriate.”

It all stemmed from his military career, which more or less began at Pearl Harbor. Hammett recalls with absolute clarity looking out over the battleships in the harbor the day the Japanese attacked, seeing one ship upside down and another in flames.

“All those bodies, all that carnage, all that destruction happened in just one hour and 50 minutes,” he said.

He stayed in the Navy for nearly two more decades. When he was about ready to get out, he happened to be in Long Beach helping give polio shots at a church and struck up a conversation with the doctor working next to him.

The doctor was looking for a business manager to help him open a new medical clinic. So Hammett left the Navy, joined the medical group and was at work there the same day.

Two years later, he helped found Bristol Park Medical Group in Costa Mesa. It grew from two doctors to 85 doctors when he retired in 1985.

After joining the Costa Mesa police reserves in 1961, Hammett was dismayed to find himself, with his two decades of military experience, “sitting here as a flunky, getting coffee for these guys.”

So he spoke to the police chief about it and ended up creating a training program for reserve officers. He ended up receiving the first badge given for completing the training. He still keeps it in his desk at home.

Soon after that, he was appointed to the Planning Commission, and when a seat on the council was up in 1970, he ran and beat the incumbent.

He’s been president of the chamber of commerce, a baseball umpire, a sailor on the Argus at the Boy Scout sea base in Newport Beach and a pilot, crossing the country in a Cessna in 1976 to celebrate the nation’s bicentennial.

Look back, Hammett said, he’s most proud of something else that resulted from his military career. He and some other veterans founded the Freedom Committee of Orange County, a group that provides speakers to deliver “living history” to schools.

Hammett realizes he’s been successful at many areas of his life, and he’s grateful for that success. He says, with an air of having said it many times, that there’s no such thing as a self-made man.

“What does that mean? It means I had a hell of a wife who took care of things at home so I could get all these other things done,” he said.

He expects when he accepts the city award today, his wife will be there to see it, as will some of his four children.

As much as people in Costa Mesa may appreciate Hammett’s service to the city and country, he’s appreciative right back for being able to do it.

“All this other stuff is frosting on the cake,” he said. “I’ve been a very fortunate man.”

ALICIA ROBINSON may be reached at (714) 966-4626 or at alicia.robinson@latimes.com.