Mike Hammond or Michael D. Hammond was born on November 28, 1961, in Des Moines, and died on October 29, 2015.
He was an American computer executive, co-founder of Gateway Computers.
Mike, who did not graduate from college, worked as a diesel mechanic before going to work as a salesman for a Des Moines computer shop.
His parents were Merlin Hammond and the former Annette Frazier. Mr. Hammond.
When Mike left Gateway he founded Dakota Muscle, a company in North Sioux City that restored and repaired classic cars.
Hammond first started in an Iowa farmhouse and became known for shipping products in boxes with a spotted cow design.
Ted Waitt, a friend he met at the University of Iowa football game, and himself in their early 20s when they started Gateway in 1985, only 2 years after they had met, initially working out of Ted’s family farm just outside Sioux City.
Gateway’s products shipped in distinctive cowhide-patterned boxes.
When they first started, the company was originally called Gateway 2000, which sold computer parts before developing a line of personal computers and selling them directly to consumers, they shipped cartons recognizable by their black-and-white spotted design resembling the hide of a Holstein cow.
The pair gain reputation for high-quality provider of low-cost equipment, Gateway grew quickly into a Fortune 500 company, employing more than 10,000 people globally and emerging as a rival to Dell in the direct-to-consumer computer market.
The company eventually moved its headquarters to North Sioux City, S.D.
He soon started opening retail stores to augment its direct-to-consumer strategy.
Since 2000, the company has had 242 retail shops, called Gateway Country Stores, across the United States; in 2002, the company reported about $4.2 billion in net sales.
In 2007, Gateway, which by then had moved its corporate office again, to Southern California, was sold to Acer, a Taiwanese company, for $710 million.
The former Lisa Hunt, his wife, whom he married in 2011, but she died due to cancer.
He left behind his son, Michael; a daughter, Jessica; a brother, Mark; a sister; and four grandchildren.
Mike Hammond passed away at 53 years old at his home in Sioux City, Iowa.