STOCKTON — Eric Hammer, the “heart and soul” of University of the Pacific’s Conservatory of Music, according to Peter Witte, his friend, colleague and the dean of the department, died suddenly at his Lodi home on Monday, four days after having back surgery. He was 68.The director of bands and a music education teacher for 26 years at Pacific, Hammer was planning to retire after the current semester and was to have put the exclamation point on his career by [...]