Harrison Albert

1936 - 2017

Harrison Bernard Albert, 80, died on Friday, October 27, 2017 in Boulder, CO. Harry was born on December 12, 1936 in Oakland, CA to Lydia Sophia Meyer Albert and Norman Murray Albert. He attended UC Berkeley, graduating with a degree in Chemistry in 1959, and then served in the U.S. Navy as midshipman and as officer, afloat on BB64 and in the West Pacific on DDR877, specializing in electronics and celestial navigation. Harry received a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1969. In 1959, he married Judith Wollenhaupt. He is survived by their sons: Bryan, of Bellingham, WA; Geoffrey, of Amersfoort, The Netherlands; Christopher Max, of Boulder, CO; and Dana of Albany, CA; by his nieces Joanne and Susan Johnson; by grandchildren Lydia, John, Rachel, Jake, Laura, Kathleen, Jamey, Peter, Mia, Lonneke, Max, Swenne, Alexa, and Lindsay; and by previous wives Jude Albert, Sandy Rabenhorst, and Joyce Robertson. He is predeceased by his parents and his brother David. After graduate school, Harry worked at the IBM Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY, then returned to Boulder to join the University of Colorado faculty, teaching Analytical Chemistry for eight years. Then he worked at Ball Aerospace, in the celestial navigation group building star trackers, which are navigation instruments for the space shuttle. He has also done work for NBS/NIST on computer peripherals, power supplies, and the atomic clock. He attended the Boulder Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Lafayette for many years, and delighted in bicycling, hiking, and taking telescopes to remote, dark, quiet places for astronomy. He was admired for his generosity of spirit and his flair in giving science lessons at church and community venues. A memorial service for Harry will be held at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, November 19 at the Boulder Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 1241 Ceres Drive, Lafayette, CO. In lieu of flowers, you are invited to make a donation in Harry's honor to Earthjustice, Ploughshares Fund, or Doctors Without Borders. Notes of condolence may be e-mailed to rememberingharry@albertnet.us.