Traditionally, college graduation represents both a beginning and an
end – as students open the door to their future, they say farewell to the
campus that helped guide them to the threshold. But as both a student
and in general, Maxine Lane had always been “non-traditional,” and her
path after graduation followed suit.
In 1978, at the age of 51, Lane received her Bachelor’s degree in Social
Work from Kean University. But rather than saying farewell to Kean,
Lane continued with what would eventually grow to be an everlasting
commitment to the University.
Over the next four decades, Lane and her husband Jack would become
the University’s strongest supporters; providing the largest lifetime
amount ever donated to the University, totaling 3.1 million dollars.
“You get into the business of fundraising to meet people like Maxine,”
says James Gurland, Senior Advancement Officer for Kean’s Office of
Institutional Advancement, “and I am so glad I had the pleasure of
getting to know her over the years…she was a truly unique individual.”
In 2009, the University christened the Maxine and Jack Lane Center for
Academic Success in honor of the couple’s immeasurable contributions.
Chief amongst these contributions is the Maxine & Jack Lane Endowed
and Annual Education Scholarship, which was first awarded in 2008, and
has since provided 48 junior- and senior-year students with fully-funded
tuitions. Lane always felt a genuine connection to her scholarship
recipients and attended as many of the University’s annual scholarship
receptions as she could, in order to meet the students and offer them her
quiet and sincere encouragement.
According to Gurland, this was the embodiment of who Lane was, and
how she lived her life; “She was incredibly inspirational, and lived such a
simple life with so much optimism.” He goes on to describe Lane as “the
millionaire-next-door,” with her unpretentious and soft-spoken manner,
so contrary to what you might expect from someone funding dozens of
college tuitions.
Some of that modesty may have stemmed from Lane’s early impressions
of life, growing up as a girl in Arkansas. She wasn’t born into money, or
to a childhood rife with privilege. Rather, she was born in August of 1925,
to a childhood weighed down by the realities of life during the Great
Depression. These first experiences with financial instability may have
helped influence Lane’s modest disposition, her self-proclaimed “talent
for saving money,” and her generous nature.
Kean University President Dr. Dawood Farahi expressed a similar
sentiment, describing Lane as “a humble woman” after her speech at
the Nathan Weiss Graduate College commencement in 2014. It was
there that Lane received an Honorary Degree from her alma mater, in
recognition of her “passion for providing help to those who need it
most” and her “generosity of spirit.”
Lane passed away in May at the age of 90, and although she is gone, her
generosity of spirit remains very much alive; both in the memories of the
people who knew her, and through the legacy that she left behind.
As a final mark of her dedication to student success, and her belief in the
University mission, Lane left her nearly $1.7 million retirement fund to
Kean University, becoming the largest single donor in University history,
giving more than 7 million dollars to the Kean community.
The generous gift will be wisely used, promises President Farahi,
“[Maxine] trusted us to respect and honor her spirit and legacy, as we use
this gift in the best interests of the university and its students.”
60
KEANmag
in memoriam
Remembering
Maxine Lane
