“…Forgiveness is key. If you carry bitterness, it won’t destroy the other person; it destroys you…”
I had the pleasure of talking with Dru Hammer. Dru, a dynamic businesswoman and philanthropist, has carved out a unique space in the realms of corporate governance, social work, and charity. Over her 22-year tenure as the corporate secretary and board member of the Armand Hammer Foundation, she has played a pivotal role in furthering the foundation’s mission. Her work extends to hands-on social service, including nine years ministering in women’s discipleship and aiding victims of human trafficking at the Los Angeles Dream Center. As the CEO and founder of hammeredheart.org, Dru offers support to women and children grappling with the aftermath of divorce and abuse. Additionally, she serves on the National Board for Childhelp, a non-profit dedicated to helping child abuse victims.
Dru’s journey began in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she was raised after being born in Dallas. Her childhood was shaped by the determination and hard work of her parents, who both came from extremely humble beginnings. Her father’s entrepreneurial spirit and her mother’s dedication helped pave the way for Dru and her two sisters to become self-sufficient and driven individuals. Her father, who rose from selling Coke bottles to owning banks and lumber yards, instilled in her the value of generosity and the importance of following one’s calling.
Her father’s influence was profound. Despite achieving significant business success, he remained deeply humble and generous, always attributing his success to divine providence. This blend of faith and business acumen created a household where values were paramount, and Dru absorbed these lessons fully. Her parents’ strong marriage and their commitment to their faith provided a stable and nurturing environment that encouraged Dru and her sisters to aim high and maintain a balanced perspective on success and service.
Dru’s personal life saw a significant turn when she married Michael Hammer in 1985. Michael, the grandson of industrialist Armand Hammer, brought Dru into a world far removed from her Oklahoma roots. Together, they had two children: actor Armie Hammer and financier Viktor Hammer. Despite the opulence of Beverly Hills, Dru stayed grounded, crediting her faith and the lessons from her upbringing for maintaining a sense of purpose and humility.
Dru’s philanthropic endeavors are as varied as they are impactful. With hammeredheart.org, she focuses on providing resources and support to women and children who have endured divorce and abuse. Her involvement with Childhelp demonstrates her commitment to safeguarding the welfare of children, echoing her belief in the importance of protecting the most vulnerable members of society.
Her book, “Hammered,” is a testament to her resilience and faith. The title, a playful nod to her surname, explores the theme that life hammers everyone’s heart, but through faith and determination, one can rebuild and thrive. The narrative delves into her life experiences, from her marriage into the Hammer family to her subsequent divorce, illustrating how she navigated these challenges while maintaining her faith and commitment to helping others.
Dru’s approach to philanthropy and business is deeply intertwined with her personal philosophy of giving. Inspired by her father’s ethos of being blessed to be a blessing, she ensures that her business ventures, such as those under the druville brand, contribute significantly to her Hammered Heart Foundation. This foundation supports various ministries and charitable organizations, including Childhelp, LA Dream Center and Mercy Multiplied, all helping different stages in life.
Her commitment to making a difference is not confined to traditional charity work. Dru is also involved in innovative projects like gethope.AI, which provides an AI-driven exploration of biblical teachings. Her upcoming “Walk Through the Bible in Less Than 15 Minutes a Day” journal is another initiative aimed at fostering daily spiritual growth among believers.
Dru Hammer’s life story is one of transformation, resilience, and unwavering faith. From her modest beginnings in Oklahoma to her influential role in various philanthropic and business endeavors, she embodies the principle that true success lies in service to others. Through her foundation, books, and various projects, Dru continues to inspire and empower individuals to overcome their challenges and make a positive impact in their communities.
Her legacy is not just in the tangible support she provides through her foundation but also in the intangible hope and inspiration she offers to those who read her story or benefit from her charitable work. As she continues to build on her efforts, Dru Hammer remains a beacon of resilience, faith, and generosity, dedicated to changing the world one heart at a time.
Dru, It’s a delight to meet you. Before we dive in deep, our readers would love to learn about your personal origin story. Can you share the story of your childhood and how you grew up?
Dru: Yes, I would be honored to do that because my childhood is actually what made me who I am, I guess you could say. I was raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, born in Dallas, but raised in Tulsa. Both of my parents came from extremely poor backgrounds. My mother’s father died of alcoholism when she was in the eighth grade, and my father’s dad was a butcher who always worried about making ends meet each month.
My dad was extremely driven. He started selling Coke bottles and doing whatever he could as a child, eventually working his way through college. He is the most humble, generous, amazing man you’ll ever meet. In college, he got a partial basketball scholarship, but he also did laundry for his wealthy fraternity brothers and worked as a houseboy at my mother’s sorority house to make ends meet.
When my parents fell in love and got married, my mother had to quit school to help put my dad through school. She was extremely smart and became the executive secretary to the president of the university within six months, literally helping my dad get through college.
My dad achieved a level of success that he credits entirely to God. Neither of my parents were raised with any religious background, but they found God in their thirties, which completely changed their priorities. My dad was called into ministry but was really a businessman. He owned banks, developed land, and owned lumber yards. He lived by the verse, “We are blessed to be a blessing.”
I watched my dad succeed and give huge percentages to ministries. We traveled around the world, and he never took a dime for his work in ministry. He always said he’d go wherever God wanted but wouldn’t take an offering. This wasn’t because there’s anything wrong with taking a salary; it just wasn’t his way.
Because of their generosity, my parents had a beautiful 67-year marriage. They were as in love after 67 years as they were the day they walked down the aisle. My dad was unique in how he raised his daughters. He encouraged us to pray, find our calling, and pursue it. We were raised to be self-sufficient and to put God first. He didn’t push us to get an MRS degree but to get a law degree, an MBA, or whatever we wanted.
My two sisters and I are all extremely driven and have our own businesses. We know why we do what we do because our priorities are right. We want to help others with our blessings. It was truly a blessing to be raised that way.
So you’re writing a book now that’s making a social impact and aims to touch hearts across the world. When you were younger, was there a book that inspired you to take action or that influenced your life?
Dru: Oh, I can literally visualize it right now as we speak. I remember in junior high, and by the way, I was never a reader. I’m probably a C student because I’m just all over the place and was never a great student. But you know what they say, the C students are usually the entrepreneurs because they don’t know enough to know that you can fail.
My mother bought me a book from a little Christian bookstore in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It was by Ann Kimmel and titled “I’m Out to Change the World.” She was a missionary’s daughter who grew up feeling different because they lived all over the world. She learned through watching her parents minister to love the Lord and put Him first. So, she wrote this book called “I’m Out to Change the World.” It is the simplest yet most profound book. She was a little school teacher in a poor area and had nothing.
One story that jumps out in my mind is about a little boy who was so extremely poor that he would come to school filthy. His mother had died, and his father was out trying to make money. I think he was a farmer or worked at a car garage. The boy would come to school dirty, and the kids would make fun of him. Ann took him under her wing, would take him fishing, and brought him to her apartment to get him showered and clean clothes so he wouldn’t be embarrassed in school. They developed a friendship that changed this little boy’s life.
An elderly woman lived in Ann’s apartment building and was extremely lonely. Ann would take her chocolate chip cookies and tell her that there was a God who loved her. I remember swinging on our little screened-in porch in Tulsa on a swinging chair, reading that book and thinking, “I’m going to do that, God. I’m going to change the world.” I may not ever change the entire world, but I can change the world that you put me in. That impacted me from when I was about 13 years old, and I’ve never looked back. That’s what I aspire to do. That’s why I’ve started these businesses, my foundation, and a brand. And that’s why I wrote the book, because I have so many miraculous stories in there that could not have just happened by chance.
Can you tell us a bit more about your book and how you aim to make a difference with it?
Dru: OK, well, you know, I love that my last name is Hammer and I have totally milked that. The title of my book is “Hammered.” I thought it’d be catchy because people might wonder, “Hammered? Did she get drunk and write a book?” But really, it’s about how every heart has been hammered. If you’re over two or three years old, your heart’s been hammered. That’s just life. Jesus said, “You will have trials and tribulations, but I have overcome the world.” We have a God that’s bigger than us, and we can turn to Him.
I wrote the book because I went through a devastating divorce. I married the only grandson of Armand Hammer. Here I was, a Shiksa from a small Pentecostal background, and I met Michael Hammer on an airplane. We fell madly in love. I brought him home to my parents, and he found God. Three weeks later, we were engaged, and three months later, we were married. Suddenly, I was in Beverly Hills, thrown into the black-tie world of Dr. Armand Hammer. I had no idea what I was doing. I was used to two-stepping on weekends at Oklahoma State University, so this was like the Twilight Zone for me.
My parents had money, but they were humble, and no one knew we had money. We didn’t live an opulent lifestyle. All of a sudden, I was in Beverly Hills, but I knew God had a plan. I married into this Jewish family, and my parents always taught me that as Gentiles, we are grafted into the first believers of faith, God’s chosen people. Growing up, my best friends were Jewish. I was always attracted to the Jewish culture and their values of great work ethics and education. To me, it was a privilege to be part of this family.
I had amazing experiences and learned a lot. I wrote the book for several reasons. One, God always has a plan if you’re willing to submit to it. God’s plan is always Plan A; it’s the best plan. Why go for Plan B or Plan C when Plan A is the best? I learned to follow God’s best plan. Not that I haven’t missed it at times, but I’ve learned.
I thought I had the perfect life. I was married for 25 years, raised two sons, and thought life was perfect. Then I went through a devastating divorce. He was my soulmate, my best friend, the father of my children. My parents always said that besides trusting in God, your marriage is the second most important decision you’ll ever make because you become one, as the Bible says. I was really crushed, but God pulled me up when I couldn’t pull myself up. I want to give people hope because, in this country, the divorce rate is over 50%, which is so sad. It’s a breakdown of our society. I want to teach, when divorce is inevitable (as it takes two to tango) that it doesn’t have to be the end of their lives.
Forgiveness is key. If you carry bitterness, it won’t destroy the other person; it destroys you. Michael and I developed a beautiful friendship afterward. We spent holidays together. When he died from glioblastoma a year ago, I would crawl into bed with him in the hospital, put my arms around him, and tell him how much I loved him. We had 25 beautiful years together, and he knew I forgave him from the beginning. It’s important for people to learn forgiveness.
I also think it’s crucial for women and men to have job skills because we don’t know what tomorrow brings. Sometimes life just hammers you. My heart was hammered, but I had learned business from my father as a young child. By that time, I had renovated over 27 properties successfully. God gave me the ability to renovate significant properties with good profits. My dad taught me the basics of business, and I had a job skill.
I believe it’s important to teach women to have some form of a business outside of their marriage. Even if it’s making little beaded bracelets for a cause and selling them, do something. You never know what the future holds.
Amazing. You mentioned one story. Can you share another one of your favorite stories from your book?
Dru: I had so many amazing experiences. I thank God every day. When I first moved to LA, I was extremely intimidated. It was my first black tie event with Dr. Hammer, and I was seated at this table with a man who introduced himself as James. I said, “Oh, I’m Dru Hammer.” He responded, “Oh my gosh,” and told me Dr. Hammer was one of his best friends and had told him all about me. He loved me because I wasn’t intimidated by him. To be honest, I didn’t know enough to be intimidated.
So James asked how I met Michael because Armand told him I was from Tulsa, Oklahoma. I told him, “God.” He asked what I meant, and I explained how my parents prayed for godly mates for their daughters, and when Michael walked on the plane, I felt he was the one God had for me. James started crying, and I asked if I had said something to offend him. He said, “No, just the opposite. May I tell you a story?”
He told me his name was James Roosevelt, and his father campaigned for president by train. Before every stop, they would pray and ask God for favor. The night his father was elected, they went into the Oval Office, got on their knees, and thanked God. James said he hadn’t thought about God for 50 years after that. I told him it was time to give his life back to God, and I prayed with him right there. He asked Jesus to be his Messiah and was weeping, saying he would serve Him from that day on.
God spoke to me at that moment, saying, “Dru, you were worried about what you were wearing. You don’t have a blue blood pedigree or Ivy League education. But nobody else in this room can share that with him but you.” From then on, I started sharing Christ with everyone.
Another story involves Princess Diana. I met her three or four times, and the third time, God gave me an opportunity to share with her. Although I would never presume to understand her life and the pressure she faced, I experienced a small part of it as Armand Hammer’s granddaughter-in-law. Hosting big events for Occidental Petroleum was a lot of pressure, but I had someone to lean on. She didn’t. I was able to share that with her.
There are many more stories like these in my book. I hope people buy it. “Hammered” will be available on Amazon on July 30th, or you can get it on druville.com, my personal website. I could talk all day about the amazing stories and experiences God gave me through the years.
So part of the aim of your book is to empower women who are struggling or going through divorce and to show them how they can rebuild their lives. Can you share a few nuggets of advice on how women can rebuild their lives?
Dru: That’s a big part of the book for me. When you’re in God’s plan, He will guide you. When I married into the family, I never thought it would become a career. I just did it because I loved the creative outlet and it was fun for me. I’m not good at sitting around because my dad taught us to be driven and productive.
When I started my first house in LA, we bought our first home there and I wanted to redo it. This is a funny story. I didn’t know anything; I just knew I loved design. I’ve always been more of a creative person, definitely more right-brained.
I started my first project with a darling little house in Bel Air, a two-bedroom, two-bath. I was redoing the surfaces/finishes and wanted to save some money. So, I went to a lumber yard before Home Depot and found some men who only spoke Spanish looking for work. I brought them back and in my very broken Spanish, I pointed to the countertops and said, “afuera, afuera,” meaning to take out the countertops.
Michael suggested I leave while they worked because it would be loud and dirty. When I returned, the entire kitchen was gone — every cabinet, the sink, the stove — nothing but two-by-fours were left. I started laughing because they probably did what I asked, but I only meant the tiles.
I’m saying all this to highlight that you learn so much by making mistakes. You don’t learn by making all good decisions; you learn by making bad ones. That wasn’t my finest moment, but I chose real estate because I learned a lot about what not to do. After 27 properties, I ended up renovating 15,000-square-foot homes. I loved the creative outlet, but my key was my dad’s advice: “You make your money when you buy, not when you sell.” I only bought beautiful old homes with great bones that needed everything, but I bought them for lot value. If I could get the homes for lot value, I could put money into them and still have a large profit margin.
I actually plan to write another book called “druville: What Not to Do,” so others can learn from my mistakes. You learn a lot and keep going. I hope to encourage women and men to think outside the box. I think Harvard grads are taught so much about what not to do, whereas I learned what you could do. I just went for it, made a lot of mistakes, but kept going.
I love listening to the podcast “How I Built This.” People like Dyson made 5,000 prototypes before he came up with the one that sold millions. That’s why God chose him for that, because I would have quit at 100. I want to teach people that it’s okay to make mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes, but it’s about who is more tenacious and keeps going.
This is our aspirational question, Dru. Because of the platform you’ve built and your great work, you’re a person of enormous influence, and people take your words very seriously. If you could spread an idea or inspire a movement that would bring the most good to the most people, what would that be?
Dru: I kind of get back to what I said before. Always go with your first instinct, right? I’ve always lived by the values my parents taught me, which is to always seek God. I believe He has the best plan for all our lives. If God is the creator of the universe, and I believe He is, then He created human beings as physical, spiritual, and mental beings. That’s what separates us from animals — we’re spiritual beings.
Why did He create us as spiritual beings? To have a relationship with His children. I brought two beautiful sons into this world because I wanted a relationship with them. I think God created us to have a relationship with Him. But He’s a perfect gentleman, and we’re not robots; we’re not puppets on strings. He gave us a choice. We can choose to go to Him or not.
I would say, throw it out there: “God, if you’re real, reveal yourself to me and guide me. Show me what you want for my life.” I believe His plan is the best.
Number two, we are blessed to be a blessing. I think God blesses certain people because He knows they will be givers. From the very beginning of time, through the Torah, God required tithing. Abraham was the first to give 10% of everything God blessed him with to Melchizedek, the priest, to make a difference. That’s what we’re called to do.
For example, supporting Israel. God says, “I’ll bless those that bless you and curse those that curse you.” So, I support Israel because God told us to. When we bless God’s people and make a difference in this world, He just wants to bless us more. It’s a rotating process: the more He blesses us, the more we’re supposed to make a difference.
All my businesses, druville, are built around this concept. Fifty percent of everything that comes in goes to my foundation, Hammered Heart Foundation. You can buy all my products on druville.com, and we’re always growing with new products. My book sales also contribute to my foundation. Everything I do goes into the Hammered Heart Foundation, which supports several key ministries.
One of the main ones is Childhelp, which has saved over 12 million children from child abuse. They have a hotline, 1–800–4ACHILD. The founders, Sarah O’Mara and Yvonne Feddersen, started 65 years ago and are still going strong at nearly 90 years old. They continue to help more abused children every day.
I also support Mercy Multiplied, which helps young women in crisis, and the Los Angeles Dream Center. I volunteered there for 10 years, working with women off the streets, victims of human trafficking, women out of prostitution, drug addiction, and alcoholism, as well as men facing similar struggles. They’re changing lives in ways I can’t personally, but I get to contribute to their efforts.
My giving is multiplied through these organizations. Everything I do is to fund Hammered Heart, which in turn supports all these other entities.
How can our readers purchase your book? How can they purchase anything else you’re offering? How can they support your work in any way?
Dru: Well, druville is, and this is kind of a funny story — people often ask where I got the name druville. My two sons, because we moved so much and I was constantly renovating properties, would tell people they grew up in Whoville. This was because our homes were always decorated in whimsical, bright colors like hot pinks, lime greens, lemon yellows, and bright blues. I just love designing homes with bright colors, inspired by the beautiful colors God gave us, much like a rainbow. That’s why I’m in Palm Beach now; it really syncs with what I do.
So, when I started this business with the same whimsical design, I called it druville. You can find my brands and products on druville.com. You can also purchase my book on Amazon as of July 30th, though you can pre-order it now.
Additionally, I did an AI project called gethope.AI, which explores what the Bible says. This project took seven days and was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It includes 1,500 questions on what the Bible says, along with some personal questions about me and my “Hammered” book.
I’m also working on a 365-day journal called “Walk Through the Bible in Less Than 15 Minutes a Day.” It’s a daily program that guides you through the Bible with minimal time commitment. We’ll send you a journal and study guide to go along with it. You can find this on druville.com or gethope.AI.
I’m excited about all these projects. You’re doing such amazing and important work, and it’s inspiring to hear from fellow believers who are passionate about their faith. I hope that passion continues to spread.
I wish you continued success and blessings in your work. I hope this book does really well and spreads the amazing message you’re promoting.
Dru: Thank you. That’s really my goal. I believe in giving to many causes, including cancer research, but I like to focus on what’s eternal. Our minds can’t fathom eternity — God is infinite, and our minds are finite. I want to lead as many people as I’m called to the one true God because that’s eternal.
It’s an honor and a delight to meet you. I hope we can do this again next year.
Dru: Perfect. I would love that. Thank you for the opportunity.
I wish you a beautiful evening.
Dru: Thank you.
Hammered: Author, Businesswoman, & Philanthropist Dru Hammer on Turning Life’s Trials into Triumphs was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.