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Past chairman for the town of Onalaska, Steven Hammes, passed away June 1 after a stroke. He was 53 years old.

Hammes served as a town board supervisor for eight years and as town chairman from 1997 to 2003. He was still active in town business at the time of his death, serving on the town’s Plan Commission.

“I was very saddened to get the news,” said Town Chairman Stan Hauser. “He was a good friend. He wasn’t only an ex-board member, we were good friends. Our families knew each other, and I’m kind of upset about it.”

Hauser recalled Hammes as always being fair and hard working as a town leader. “He treated everybody equally,” Hauser said. “He was dedicated. He put in more hours as a town chairman than any town chairman I’ve been associated with. He’s going to be missed by the people that knew him. He was just a super person.”

Hauser said he came to know Hammes through his wife, Paula, now the town’s treasurer. “Our families were friends, and I got to know him that way and I had the pleasure to work with him,” Hauser said. “He gave a lot to the community.”

Town Clerk Sue Schultz said the people of the town will miss him. “How sad. We’ve lost a great person,” she said. “He did so much for the town. It’s a shock for so many of us.”

Schultz wasn’t a town official when Hammes was chairman, but she got to know him through his work on the Plan Commission. Schultz said she heard his name a lot because her husband worked with Hammes with the UW Extension. “I heard his name a lot and all the good things he did for the town prior to 2003.

“He was an excellent resource for the Plan Commission,” Schultz continued. “He knew the stuff. He had the background and the experience needed to guide the commission. He’d say ‘I think this is the way we should be looking at it.’ Big picture stuff.”

Hammes was a founding member of the Brice Prairie First Responders. He was not an emergency medical technician, but drove the vehicles. “That was important,” Schultz said. “That way the medical people didn’t have to worry about where they were going or about driving the vehicle, they could concentrate on the patient.”

Hammes was born in La Crosse, growing up in the Medary area, and went to Logan High School. A longtime Trane Co. employee, he served in the National Guard.

He leaves behind his wife Paula, a daughter, two sons, two sisters, two brothers and four grandchildren.

Memorial services were held Wednesday at the Dickinson Family Funeral Home and a private family burial followed. The family asks that memorial donations be sent to the Brice Prairie First Responders, W7886 Hwy. ZN, Onalaska, WI 54650.