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Edwin Doyle Lane
Pampa High School Class of 1944
Edwin Doyle Lane was born in 1926 in Arnett, Oklahoma to Mr. and Mrs. W.M. Lane. His family later relocated to Pampa, where he was raised. While attending Pampa schools, Mr. Lane excelled in many areas. He attended Woodrow Wilson Elementary school, where he played the saxophone in the school band, and received several awards for solo and duet competitions. While in junior high school, he played football, basketball, was a member of the Pampa Swimming and Diving Team, performed as the leading role in several one-act plays, participated in intramural activities, played saxophone in the Reaper Band, and served as the Student Body President for two semesters. While in high school, Mr. Lane played basketball, sang in the acappela choir, and graduated in 1944 with a pre-college diploma.
After graduation, and during World War II, Mr. Lane, enlisted in the Naval Air Corps. He received officers training at the University of Louisiana Lafayette and at the University of Texas. He received an honorable discharge from the Navy in 1946. Mr. Lane graduated in the top 10 % of his class from Texas Tech University in 1950 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Civil Engineering. He received scholastic achievement and exemplary character awards from the Tau Beta Pi National Engineering Honor Society. He later worked on his master’s degree by attending night school at the University of Washington Seattle and the University of Colorado.
Mr. Lane enjoyed working with children, and was the manager of a Little League baseball team that won the League Championship in 1968. He later served as the president of the Clear Lake Little League in Seabrook, Texas. He was also a Cub Scout Den Master in 1963 in Littleton Colorado.
Mr. Lane had a distinguished career in both the Aerospace and Petroleum/Chemical industries. He was the president of a consulting engineering company for industry for seven years, and was listed in the Who’s Who in the South and Southwest. During the cold-war with the Soviet Union, he was a member of a three company aerospace team who determined the capability of a Russian intercontinental ballistic missile. He was a structures design engineer for intercontinental ballistic missiles, spacecraft, and airplanes, and instrumental in the development of the Titan II Intercontinental Ballistic Missile and Gemini spacecraft launch rocket. He was Technical Director with the responsibility for the design and development of the expandable space structure for the U.S. Air Force. The purpose of the project was to determine the feasibility of designing and constructing a structure that could be operated and be successfully tested in the laboratory. The concept was that it could be used in space to provide housing for astronauts or provide a structure that could be used for other purposes. Mr. Lane is a co-holder of a patent for the application of a titanium orotroic sandwich structural material. Mr. Lane retired from Exxon Mobil in 1994, after twenty-seven years. He was a projects engineer and maintenance planner for Exxon, and received an environmental achievement award among several other awards.
Mr. Lane has four sons, David, Douglas, Dwight, and Duncan. He currently lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana with his wife, Mary Jane. He is presently serving a fourth one-year term as president of a civic association for 217 home owners in Baton Rouge, and is a member of the University Baptist Church. He is also a member of the St. James Masonic Lodge and holds a 32nd Degree in the Scottish Rite Masons. He has been a member of the Masonic lodge for 45 years.