On November 7th, Bill Lane celebrated his 90th birthday. Bill and Jean Lane have been generous donors to POST for many years and and have sponsored POST’s Wallace Stegner Lecture series since its founding in 1993. Bill is a conservation pioneer and longtime philanthropist, and has served as the publisher of Sunset Magazine and ambassador to both Australia and Japan.

We took the opportunity of this special day to thank Bill with a bench dedicated to his lifetime of inspiring work.

Bill and Jean Lane

Bill and Jean with Vice President Anne Trela and President Audrey Rust

Thumbs Up!

An original poem was also composed for the occasion by POST staff member Will Clark:

Once more, amidst the red madrone,
The sunset’s autumn glow
Casts dappled shadows on the woods
And hills we love and know,

Where Wallace Stegner found his muse
In wilds of the west,
Where, benefactors of the land,
Two brothers worked abreast.

Though in these people and this place
Lies much to celebrate,
We pause a moment to reflect
On an important date.

For 90 years you’ve weaved a course
Through many lands and seas,
Ambassador for nations far,
And for our creeks and trees.

A lover of the written word,
A speaker for our land,
Bill Lane, our home is better for
Your philanthropic hand.

And so we gather here today,
To honor 7^th November,
Your birthday, and a legacy,
The future will remember:

How, gazing to horizon from
The bayside or the sea,
You’ve made a gift of open space
For perpetuity.

Bill Lane, your mark is on the wind.
The vale and creek, hereafter,
Will ring true with your accolades
In joy, and love and laughter.

– W.S. Clark

This year’s Wallace Stegner Lecture Series features authors Richard Preston and Paul Theroux and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla. For dates and ticket information: http://openspacetrust.org/activities/lecture.html