Social worker, family therapist Hammargren dies

Monday, Nov. 30, 1998 | 11:13 a.m.

Barbara Hammargren, a longtime leader in Nevada's social work community who helped set and maintain standards for marriage and family therapy, died Sunday of heart failure at Summerlin Hospital Medical Center. She was 61.

The ex-wife of Lt. Gov. Lonnie Hammargren also was president of the Governor's Board of Examiners for Marriage and Family Therapy from 1985 to 1989.

"When new social workers came to town, they were told to call on my mother and she would help network them into their area of work," said Hammargren's daughter Amy Tabor of Las Vegas said. "She worked hard to maintain the ethical standards for marriage and family therapy in this state."

Services will be private for Hammargren, who lived in Las Vegas for 27 years.

Last month, Hammargren, a state licensed clinical social worker and a board licensed marriage and family therapist, was was named an assistant professor in the psychiatry department at the University of Nevada School of Medicine.

Born Barbara Rodeberg on March 27, 1937, in Montevideo, Minn., Hammargren earned a masters degree in social work from the University of Minnesota in 1961.

She came to Las Vegas in 1971 and a year later founded the Effectiveness Training Association of Nevada. In the early '70s, Hammargren was a social worker for the March of Dimes. Since 1986, she has been a clinical training coordinator for the Charter Behavioral Health System of Nevada.

Hammargren was a member of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists and the National Association of Certified Social Workers.

In addition to her daughter, Hammargren is survived by her two sons, Krist Hammargren and Karl Hammargren, both of Las Vegas; her mother Lou Rodeberg of Montevideo; and three grandchildren.

Donations: in Hammargren's memory to the Nevada Association for the Handicapped.