Albert Burnette Roberts, born in Endwell, NY March 16, 1932 to John Lawrence Roberts and Genevieve Irene Burnette Roberts. He began his studies at Harpur College, part of SUNY Binghamton. He then attended Cornell University as a Telluride Scholar in Law and Public Administration. Making the leap from academia to what felt like the real world, he entered Nelson Rockefeller’s staff where he worked on the expansion of New York’s State University system. He rose through the ranks to be Secretary of the Assembly Ways and Means Committee and later, as Director of the Senate Committee on Taxation. By 1985, he had become an Aide to Senator Roy Goodman. Roberts was one of the first in government to recognize the coming AIDS pandemic and was instrumental in the establishment of the New York State AIDS Institute within the NY State Dept. of Health. Additionally, he was at the forefront of the development of the New York State Kidney Disease Institute.
After retiring from public service, Roberts plunged into another activity which appealed to his interests and began seriously collecting art. He joined the board of the Albany Institute of History and Art and donated many art works to them. He became a Hudson, New York resident where he was to spend the rest of his life. Among his art finds was a painting that was rescued from a farm shed in Kinderhook still with bird droppings on the back. He paid $600 for it. With his rigorous system of authentication, he believed it be an important painting and eventually the painting was verified as a masterpiece by Van Dyck. The painting turned out to be a study of St. Jerome and potentially worth millions. Roberts was convinced that there are scores of other paintings in his collection that may also one day be authenticated as masterpieces. He was running, he said “an orphanage for lost art that had suffered from neglect.”
In the last years of his life, he authored a book with Lawrence Pitkethly titled SLEEPING WITH MATISSE that explains his method of authentication. He also set up the Albert B. Roberts Foundation to give financial support to artists and other creatives as well as charities close to his heart.
Albert was an unpretentious man with a gourmet taste, equally at home in the finest dining establishment in Paris as in a Hudson diner. He loved spending time in his beloved western North Carolina at his cabin and trailer. He and his cousin Richard Hurley and other family members spent their time enjoying bluegrass music and staging an annual molasses making event. He was never happier than when he lay back and listened to the music down home with his folks under the North Carolina skies. Albert also spent time every year as an unofficial resident of Key West where he had a daily coffee/cocktail club. He was a proud member of the Fort Orange Club in Albany as well as the Old Chatham Hunt Club.
Burial will take place at Riverhurst Cemetery in Endwell, NY with a Remembrance and Celebration of Life to be held at a later date at The Albany Institute of History and Art.
Pre-deceased by his brothers John Lawrence Jr. and Charles Mortimer Roberts
Survived by: - Nephew Charles (Chip) Roberts (wife Debbi and grand-nephew Dustin) - Niece Lisa Roberts Cadorette (grand-nieces Jess and Jacquie Cadorette and grand-nephew Josh Cadorette)-Grand-niece Emily Roberts and great grand-niece Tallulah Stinson - Grand-niece Sarah Roberts Horwinski (husband Joe) and great grand- nieces Freya, Farren and Rowan Horwinski. - Caregiver Cody Williams