I'd been up to the CT Kaman headquarters a few times, to cover press events. A really great bunch of people running Kaman and Hamer.
In got all the "suits" into a mass snowball fight with each other when the other media guys were trying to get them to pose holding shovels, in the typical stereotype "groundbreaking" photo. I yelled out "that BLOWS....someone throw some snowballs" and all he'll broke out. Funny.
I was up there maybe a year later for the grand opening of the new warehouse, which Kaman had timed to coincide with founder And CEO Charlie Kaman's birthday (I think his 75th.) I spotted Charlie sitting off alone with his German Sheppard and shot a few candid pics of him. I later sent a couple copies to his son, Kaman Pres Bill Kaman. To my surprise, Bill called me a few days later, asking if he could get more. He said his dad said it was the best photo anyone had ever done of him, a rather nice compliment coming from a guy who had been around for 75 years and been photographed quite a lot for his accomplishments.
The one time I was up there Bill took me around for a tour of Kaman Aerospace, where they build helicopters and had come up with the idea of using the blade plastics to make the round back Ovations. All those guys loved music and played. They weren't just a bunch of suits. That was part of what led to Kaman buying Hamer. Bill Kaman owned a bunch of their guitars and loved them and wanted to help expand the brand back in the late 80s.
Also took the Hamer factory tour of their factory, in an old lumber mill on a river up in the woods. Just a great place. A lot of notable builders came through the Hamer ranks over the decades and the brand was responsible for many industry firsts. So, for me, it is a sad thing to see it closed....especially by a bunch of corporate FMIC hacks who bolt on necks down in Mexico. It's like Kia buying Mercedes and closing it down.
Maybe that's why I only own one Fender....my four main brands I've used the longest Hamer, Kubicki, SUNN and SWR, were all victims of FMIC.
Jon, I understand your feelings for Hamer and the Kaman family, but your view of Fender's actions isn't accurate.
Kaman sold because its music division had become a huge drag on corporate profits. They unloaded it at a bargain basement price to keep from losing more money on the division. Fender bought it because they needed the manufacturing capacity and the skilled workmen at the time. They certainly didn't buy it for the Hamer brand. If FMIC hadn't needed the capacity and workmen, you can bet Kaman would have shut it down rather than continue to bleed. Nobody -- including Fender -- would have ever bought it with the idea of turning around the US operations. There were no other prospective buyers.
US Hamer production was at a trickle compared to the 90s, long before FMIC bought it. I don't know what you would have expected them to do. It's sad that sales no longer can support that factory being open, but Hamer's custom shop was already living on borrowed time.
Fender revived the SUNN brand for a new series of guitar and bass amps about 15 years ago, then dropped the nameplate when they didn't sell well, and people somehow thought they shut down the company. In fact, SUNN amps were already dead and gone when Fender bought the rights from Hartzell in 1985.
SWR was in receivership when Fender bought them. Now, maybe they could have done more with the brand, maybe not, but SWR would be extinct if FMIC hadn't bought them. Likewise with the Guild and Tacoma brands. Both those companies were broke and production had ceased when FMIC bought them.
I don't know about Kubicki, but none of these other companies were victims of FMIC.
And somehow people think Gibson is the Evil Empire 
Maybe they are, maybe not, but Gibson also gets an unfair rap for shutting down companies or running them into the ground. Example: Trace Elliot. The company was in receivership when Kaman bought it, the bass amps weren't even being made by the time Gibson bought the remains in order to produce a guitar amp under the Gibson name. Yet Gibson was accused of running the company into the ground.
