BBCC trustee receives national award

MOSES LAKE — Big Bend Community College trustee Jon Lane will be one of six people honored with a national award for community college alumni. The Outstanding Alumni Award will be presented by the American Association of Community Colleges April 24 in New Orleans.

“This is an enormous honor,” Lane said. “I am very humbled, and thankful.” He was appointed as BBCC trustee in December 2010, has been board chair and has served as treasurer and president of the Washington Association of College Trustees.

Lane is one of 14 people in his family who have attended BBCC. He’s also a retired middle school teacher and principal at private and public schools. (And a Moses Lake High school graduate.)

Along with his work as a trustee, Lane and his family have established the Lane Family Scholarship, which helps support students with tuition.

The Lane family’s connection with BBCC goes back all the way to the beginning. “My older brother Mike paved the way for me to attend (BBCC). He was the first student to register when Big Bend opened its doors and it was a great fit for him.”

There were nine kids in the Lane family, and community college gave them a chance that might not have been available without it. “Coming from a large family, we were not financially able to afford six children in college at the same time. It just made sense for us to start locally and then transfer to complete any further education.”

Lane’s wife and his parents also are BBCC alumni, and so are two of Lane’s grandchildren.

“Having come through the community college system, I experienced first-hand the quality of instruction and the caring, connected faculty dedicated to their students.” After BBCC, Lane attended the University of Washington and Central Washington University, graduating from CWU in 1970.

His first job was as a teacher and coach at Pullman High School, and in 1972 he moved back to Moses Lake, teaching at BBCC, farming and teaching at what was then Chief Moses Junior High. Lane moved over to Frontier Junior High, and became a hero in February 1996, when he stopped a student who had already killed three people.

He became principal at Warden Middle School in 1997, and assistant principal at Frontier in 2000. He retired from public education in 2005, and became principal of St. Rose of Lima Catholic School in Ephrata for five years.

Lane also served as Moses Lake mayor and was on the Moses Lake City Council for 11 years.