Jean C. Lane, Activist
Jean C. Lane, an art professor who, after retiring in 1986, moved to Sag Harbor and devoted much of her time to the fight for clean water, died of lymphoma on April 18 in Seattle. She was 93.
In a profile in The East Hampton Star in 2002, Dr. Lane said, “It’s wrong to call somebody an environmentalist. We are all involved in the environment. It’s where we live. You can just become more knowledgeable.”
During her 16 years on the East End, Dr. Lane was president of Save the Bays, which helped achieve national recognition for the Peconic Estuary; a member of the Southampton Town Conservation Board, the South Fork Groundwater Task Force, the Coalition of Neighborhoods for Preservation of Sag Harbor, and the chairwoman of the Sag Harbor Village Planning Board’s Harbor Committee.
She felt the Southampton administrative boards were not sufficiently responsive to environmental issues, citing in 2002 the town’s approval of the Bridge, the Noyac golf course built over the area’s prime drinking water source. The conservation board had recommended that the land be preserved but, she said, “We were voiceless.”
Dr. Lane was born on Aug. 23, 1922, in Winnebago, Minn., to Severn D. Lane and the former Nellie Curtis. She grew up in Huntley, Minn., and Walla Walla, Wash., and earned a B.S. degree at Mankato State University in 1944. She subsequently received both M.A. and Ed.D. degrees from Columbia University in New York City.
She was employed from 1956 to 1986 by New Jersey City University, where she was professor of art and chairwoman of the art department. She was also a professional artist who exhibited her work throughout the New York metropolitan area and in Sag Harbor at the Goat Alley Gallery, Romany Kramoris Gallery, and Canio’s Books. After moving to Portland, Ore., in 2003, she exhibited at galleries on the West Coast.
While living in Jersey City, she served on the Courthouse Restoration Committee of Hudson County, which successfully fought for the preservation of the Hudson County Courthouse. She received a certificate of merit from the Women’s Equity Action League and ran, unsuccessfully, for the New Jersey State Senate on the Republican ticket, a defeat she blamed on that state’s “Democratic machine.”
Dr. Lane is survived by a niece, Carol Buchholz of Seattle, and two nephews, Steven Slaymaker of Portland, Ore., and Mark Slaymaker of Eugene, Ore. She was buried at Riverside Cemetery in Winnebago, and family members will gather there in late September for graveside services at the Lane family burial site.
The family has suggested memorial contributions to the Sierra Club, 85 Second Street, San Francisco, Calif. 94105, Emily’s List, 1800 M Street NW, Suite 375N, Washington, D.C. 20036, or a local charity.