XENIA — After graduating from Miami University, W.A. Hammond was a chemistry professor at Antioch University. He formed the W.A. Hammond Drierite Company in Yellow Springs, manufacturing a commercial desiccant. The business was later moved to Xenia. He received the Torrence Award in 1964 was President of the Greene County Historical Society for many years and in 1991 was inducted into the Ohio State Science and Technology Hall of Fame, Ohio’s Center of Science and Industry in Columbus for his invention of the product which he called “Drierite”.