Albert Hand describes himself as a “failed historian” who wound up practicing corporate law on Wall Street for 35 years. A 1962 graduate of Princeton, he entered Harvard’s Ph.D. program in History but transferred to its Law School after earning a Master’s Degree. He never, however, lost his love for history, and when he and his wife Betsy moved to Boulder from New York in 2004 they became committed supporters of the Center of the American West.
The Hands are active members of the Boulder community. Albert serves on the Advisory Board of CU’s Center for the Humanities and Arts. He’s a film buff and a Founding Member of the Film Selection Committee of The Boedecker Theater at the Dairy Arts Center. In this capacity, he sponsored collaborations with the Center of the American West on talkbacks by Patty for screenings of Blazing Saddles and All the King’s Men. His love of opera has found an outlet as a now-and-again supernumerary in productions of CU’s Eklund Opera Program and most recently a turn in the chorus of the company’s “Die Fledermaus.” The Hands decided to move to Boulder when contemplating their retirement and Betsy visited one of their four daughters, who at the time was a student at CU. It was spring and the Conference on World Affairs happened to be underway. Betsy attended several panels (including a Roger Ebert “Interruptus” session) and decided then and there that Boulder was the place to be. Some 13 years later the Hands are most happily residents in Boulder and Betsy is serving a two-year term as Community Chair of the Conference on World Affairs. Who knew?
Albert was recently a judge of the 18th Annual Thompson Awards for Western American Writing and is looking forward to serving as a director of the Center.