MWAP Lunch-13FEB2025-Dave Hammer

Dave Hammer is the founder of Hammer Custom Homes, a family-owned and run custom home builder in Colorado Springs, specializing in custom and semi-custom homes.

As a self-described teenage punk in the 1980s, Dave defied authority and lived a life of trouble. In 1987, Hammer, then 20, was driving home from work in Colorado Springs when he got into a dispute with three men in another vehicle. Hammer got out of his truck and confronted those in the other vehicle. A passenger in the other car shot Hammer in the throat, and the bullet severed Dave’s spine. Doctors said he should have died at the scene. Hammer was hospitalized for a year and a half and now uses a wheelchair.

Despite his disability, Hammer’s resilience and faith in Jesus have allowed him to be a successful and sought-after home-builder, regularly building seven-figure custom homes.

Dave’s faith has helped him understand that the shooting saved him from greater tragedy. “If it wasn’t for that,” Hammer said of the shooting, “I don’t know where I’d be today. I’d much rather be the man I am today in a wheelchair than the adolescent I was back in 1987,” Hammer said. “I have no regrets looking back.”

Dave, who lives in Colorado Springs, is married to his amazing wife, Debbie, and is father to Dave, Jr.