Former Sunset publisher dies at 85

Former Sunset publisher dies at 85

	Published : Tue, 31 Jul 2007 22:04 By : Agencies Print this Story

ATHERTON, Calif. (AP) - Melvin B. Lane, former publisher of Sunset magazine and a Stanford University trustee, died Saturday of complications from Parkinson's disease. He was 85.

Lane, former co-owner and publisher of Lane Publishing Co. and Sunset Magazine and Books, was a major force at his alma mater, playing key roles in the creation of Stanford's long-range land-use plan, the Center for International Security and Cooperation, and the Woods Institute for the Environment. One of his biggest campus projects was a fundraising campaign to restore Stanford's Memorial Church after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.

'Mel would climb with potential donors up ladders through the scaffolding to the very dome of the church to show them the work being done,' said Robert Gregg, professor emeritus of religious studies and former dean of the chapel at Stanford Memorial Church. 'It was a pretty dicey climb.'

Lane's family moved from Des Moines, Iowa, to San Francisco in 1928, when his father bought the fledgling travel magazine Sunset. Lane attended Palo Alto High School and Pomona College and graduated from Stanford University in 1944.

After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Lane began working in the family business. He led a new book division dedicated to do-it-yourself home improvements and helped the magazine become one of the nation's best-known regional publications. The family sold Lane Publishing Co. in 1990 to Time Warner.

In 1972, Gov. Ronald Reagan appointed Lane first chairman of the newly formed California Coastal Commission, which oversaw conservation and land-use initiatives along 1,100 miles of coastline. He was also active in other environmental organizations, including the Peninsula Open Space Trust and World Wildlife Fund.

Lane is survived by his wife of 54 years, Joan Fletcher Lane, daughters Whitney Miller and Julie Lane Gay, sons-in-law Richard Miller and Craig Gay, four grandchildren and his brother, L. W. 'Bill' Lane, with whom he ran Lane Publishing for nearly 40 years.