Berkeleyan

Obituary
Cadet H. Hand Jr.

10 January 2007

Cadet Hand

Professor emeritus of zoology Cadet Hammond Hand Jr., who co-founded UC's Bodega Marine Laboratory in 1966 and directed it for a quarter of a century, died Nov. 29 at the age of 86.

The marine biologist and educator died at his home in Salmon Creek, near Bodega Bay, after a long bout with cancer.

Hand was born on April 23, 1920, in Patchogue, N.Y. After earning his B.S. in biology in 1946, he entered graduate school at Berkeley, where he became fascinated by anemones, setting the stage for his career as one of the world's most respected anemone taxonomists and biologists.

After completing his Ph.D. in 1951, he served as an assistant research biologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla before returning to Berkeley as an assistant professor of zoology in 1953. He was promoted to full professor in 1962 and retired in 1985.

After joining Berkeley's zoology department in 1953, Hand and a small group of his colleagues began looking for a coastal site to build a marine-biology research station. After more than a decade of disputes involving selection of their preferred site by PG&E for construction of a nuclear reactor, in 1966 the lab was eventually completed on a 326-acre parcel near Horseshoe Cove on the outer coast of Bodega Head. Hand, who in 1961 had been appointed director of the planned lab, remained its director until 1985, even after administration of the laboratory was transferred from Berkeley to UC Davis in 1983. The lab's library was dedicated to Hand in 1996.

Hand considered among his major accomplishments at the laboratory the development with UC Davis of an aquaculture research program and facility; establishment of a Bodega Marine Life Refuge 1,000 feet offshore; and growth of the lab's annual budget, staff, and facilities (including a new administrative building and library that opened in 1996). During his tenure, research at the lab generated more than 1,000 publications.

Hand also directed teaching programs at the lab, involving students from UC's Berkeley, Davis, Santa Cruz, and San Diego campuses. He remained active after his retirement, and only closed his office and laboratory at Bodega Marine Laboratory in 2003.

Hand is survived by his wife of 64 years, Winifred Hand of Salmon Creek, and two sons, Skip Hand and Gary Hand of Sebastapol.

The family has requested that memorial contributions be made to the Cadet Hand Library, Bodega Marine Laboratory, P.O. Box 247, Bodega Bay, CA 94923.

A memorial celebration of Hand's life is being planned at the Bodega Marine Laboratory, but no date has been set.

- Robert Sanders