A memorial Mass for Francis J. Hamill, a retired contractor whose interests included travel, playing the violin and collecting Colonial furniture, will be offered at 11 a.m. Saturday at SS. Philip and James Roman Catholic Church.
Mr. Hamill, a Baltimore native who lived in Homeland for nearly 60 years, died of respiratory illness Dec. 1 at the Meridian Nursing Center-Long Green. He was 95.
He retired in the 1950s as owner or part owner of several construction companies -- the Hamill Construction Co., Carozza-Hamill Construction Co., Chesapeake Contractors and the Columbia Construction Co., all formed after World War II.
At various times earlier in his career, he was an official of the Consolidated Engineering Co., the Ligon and Ligon Construction and the Mullan Contracting Co.
In addition to many bridges, roads and dams in Maryland and nearby states, projects he worked on included the War Memorial Plaza and the water tower in Curtis Bay. During World War II, his companies did a lot of work at Army posts in Maryland and in Puerto Rico.
Mr. Hamill was a graduate of the Polytechnic Institute and earned an engineering degree at the University of Maryland. He won a public parks tennis championship in 1914 and later played on the University of Maryland tennis team. At Maryland, he was a charter member of the Sigma Nu fraternity chapter.
As an avocation, he studied the violin privately and at the Peabody Conservatory, and in the 1960s played in the Gettysburg Symphony Orchestra.
He also was a collector of 18th century American furniture and a reader who was interested in the classics, biographies and Irish plays and literature. A frequent traveler in Europe, he often attended the Abbey Theater in Dublin and became friendly with several of its players.
During World War I, he served in the Army Chemical Corps.
L His wife of 64 years, the former Marie Andrew, died in 1984.
He is survived by two daughters, Mary Jane McCarthy of Kensington and Ann H. Sisson of Baltimore; a son, Jere O. Hamill of Baltimore; a sister, May G. Hardy of Towson; 16 grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.