He worked on numerous Disney shorts during the 1930s and eventually became supervising director on the animated features Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Bambi.
Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, Hand began his animation career working on Max Fleischer's Out of the Inkwell cartoons throughout the 1920s.
Hand's organizational skills made Disney select him to be the studio's third director after Burt Gillett and Wilfred Jackson.
By the late 1930s Hand's management skills had allowed him to ascend the hierarchy of the Studio to functioning as Disney's right-hand man.
Few in number, Hand's shorts were shown in theaters for only a year-and-a-half, ending their run in the United Kingdom in July 1950 and in Canada in October 1950.
Hand's first five Animaland shorts featured the animated lives of animal species, while the remaining four of his shorts featured the leading character Ginger Nutt, a little red squirrel who lives his life with his girl Hazel Nutt and faces trouble with characters Loopy Hare, Corny Crow, and Dusty Mole.