As a mid-March snow pummeled The Broadmoor and the rest of Colorado Springs, Ann Alba was found smiling and laughing with guests and colleagues at the hotel, upbeat as ever. She seemed to relish the gray, hazardous day.

“I like the management of it,” she said of such storms. “It’s kind of like, OK everybody, we’re in this together. Who made it in today? Where do we need help? You gotta pull together when you’re running a hotel, that’s for sure.”

That’s partly why she’s worked at The Broadmoor for 37 years — that sense of camaraderie. And it’s a sense of what she described as magic.

It’s a sense, she said, that has lasted from her first night as a 23-year-old banquet server in 1989 to today as the storied hotel’s vice president and general manager. Her promotion was recently announced.

It’s been quite the journey for Alba, who came to Colorado a self-described “gypsy” from Coldwater, Mich. There, she had spent her young life working at her parents’ bar.

That first night serving at The Broadmoor, “I couldn’t believe they chose me to be a part of something so big and so grand and so magical,” Alba recalled. “I’ve never lost that feeling. Like, I can’t believe I’m here at something so big, a 106-year legacy.”

Now she is in charge of the day-to-day at the hotel started by Spencer Penrose. The Broadmoor would go on to hold an exclusive distinction among hotels worldwide today: the longest-continuing recipient of the Forbes Five-Star and AAA Five-Diamond awards. (The Broadmoor is owned by the Denver-based Anschutz Corp., whose Clarity Media Group owns The Gazette.)

Alba is now second in command to The Broadmoor’s president and CEO, Jack Damioli. He called her “the true heartbeat of the Broadmoor service culture.”

From banquet server, to bar manager, to nighttime manager and resident manager, Alba speaks fondly of “legends” and “masters” she’s learned from along the way, of generations of guests and of another sense that’s lasted nearly four decades: a sense of duty.

“I knew I wanted to be a Pioneer Club member, which is when you make it 25 years here,” Alba said. “Now it’s been 37, so I don’t know, sky’s the limit. Maybe it’ll have to be wheels or a walker. These high heels have made it around the hotel quite a bit.”

As Damioli put it: “She covers more ground in heels than a 5K on a daily basis.”

We talked to Alba about the steps that got her here. This is an abbreviated form of the conversation:

Question: All starting at a little bar in Michigan?

Answer: From a hometown bar my parents built when I was 2. You learned that you should be proud to be a server. I grew up understanding that in a family bar that’s stayed in the family with my brother now and will be carried on to my niece. It’s something that provides a livelihood, a way of life, relationships. It translated to everything I do today — a good handshake, looking somebody in the eye, learning their name and calling them by name, and telling a great story.

Q: Of the positions you’ve held over the years, any of them favorites?

A: Somebody said, “Your job as a resident manager is so glamorous!” And I said: “You remind me how glamorous it is next time we’re stripping rooms and cleaning toilets.” Every manager should know how to do that, and I take great pride in jumping out there with housekeeping, picking up plates, seeing people in the lobby, meeting and greeting. My office should be the lobby — I was told that many years ago.

Q: I had a feeling you might answer that with serving a table.

A: I love it. I’m the best busser you’ll ever find, I mean that. If this job doesn’t work, I’ll go back to serving a table.

Q: What separates great hospitality from the rest?

A: Around the world there are excellent, beautiful properties, and 90% is just that: They’re excellent because they’re running at a high level and your expectations are met and exceeded.

What we achieve is that 10%. So you get a great cappuccino, and it’s the coffee that’s the majority. But on top is that beautiful little bit of froth, and maybe somebody puts a heart on there or the ‘B’ insignia. That’s luxury. It’s that tad bit of magic that carries through.

Q: I bet you’re always getting asked about famous people you’ve met over the years.

A: I’ve met everybody from Dinah Shore, to Bob Hope, to Aerosmith, let’s put it that way. Isn’t that a gamut?

Q: I gotta ask about the food. Are there things you love to order?

A: My favorite is our Shrimp Louis (a seafood salad), which goes back to our first chef, Louis Stratta. And a glass of pinot grigio.

Q: So much history. What do you think about when you think about that history?

A: It’s like when you go to Rome. You’re walking down those streets and going, “Oh, my gosh, who walked here?” And if these walls could talk.

I love walking the hotel when the hotel is sleeping, at 2 or 3 in the morning, when the lounges have shut down and the property is quiet. I love walking the halls, and that’s what I think of, who walked these halls before me.

Q: Your parents, did they have any reaction to you starting at The Broadmoor?

A: My mother said to me at one time she considered The Broadmoor the cat’s meow. And she said one time, “I’m so glad you ended up at The Broadmoor instead of somewhere in Michigan, because it gives me somewhere fabulous to visit.” She considered herself the queen of The Broadmoor. My mother and my aunts loved The Broadmoor, mostly because they were so proud of me.

My mother was still alive. My father I lost when I was 16, so unfortunately he could not see my path. But he would be so proud.