Doyle H. Lane

1940 - 2010

MIDDLETOWN SPRINGS - Doyle H. Lane, 70, died Monday, June 14th, 2010, at his home in Middletown Springs, Vermont. The cause of death was cancer.

Doyle Lane was known worldwide for his magnificent collection of beautifully restored antique music machines, his wealth of knowledge and entrepreneurial endeavors. A creative and inventive man, Doyle managed to make it all look easy and to generously, even joyfully, share his knowledge with others.

Doyle Lane was born March 3, 1940, in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Walter and Laural Lane. He graduated from Whittier College in California in 1960 and then joined his family to help his parents create a successful summer resort on Kooteney Lake, British Columbia. He then moved to Vancouver, BC, where he worked at the Children's Aid Society, Shell Oil and Xerox. The Lane ancestors had been builders and woodworkers, clever with their hands. Doyle Lane inevitably left the corporate world and started something more appropriate to his own unique talents – a player piano business in the basement of his house. His interest in finding, fixing, restoring and tuning player pianos turned into a lifelong passion for mechanical music machines. In the mid-1970s, he opened The Player Piano Center in Vancouver, BC. In 1978, he moved his business to Hillsborough, North Carolina, where it became the Antique Music and Wheels, an AAA attraction.

In l985, Doyle Lane and his then wife, Priscilla, moved to Middletown Springs, Vt., where they turned an old Victorian mansion into Priscilla's Victorian Inn. In Vermont, his business became Doyle Lane Restorations, which was featured in a 1995 production of "Points North" on Vermont ETV. His worldwide clients included the City of Holland, Michigan, and their Dutch Street Organ, given to the city by the people of the Netherlands after World War II.

Anything that interested Doyle usually interested him enough to acquire an encyclopedic knowledge. He had a love for machinery and a passion for investigating how things worked.

He is survived by his wife, Patricia McWilliams, whom he married in l996; and two daughters from his previous marriage, Alison Lane, her husband Gordon Rowe, and their two sons Gil and Simon of Huntington, Vt., and Hilary Lester, her husband William Lester, and their children Hannah and Wyatt of Portland, Oregon. Survivors also include his sister, Theran and her husband Doug Balmain of Coulterville, California; his former wife, Priscilla (Follows) Lane of Burlington, Vt.; and an enormous circle of devoted cousins, in-laws, friends, colleagues and pets.

Cremation was private. A celebration of Doyle's life will be held at a later date.

Donations may be sent to "In Memory of Doyle Lane," Stone Valley Community Market, c/o Citizens Bank, 177 Main St., Poultney, VT 05764. Doyle, along with his wife, Patricia McWilliams, are two of the founding Steering Committee members of the Stone Valley Community Market, a nonprofit natural and local foods market expected to open the Fall of 2010; or to the Rutland Area Visiting Nurse Association and Hospice, 7 Albert Cree Drive, Rutland, VT 05701.

The family is very grateful to the attending hospice nurses for all their knowledge and extraordinary care.

View the guest book at www.rutlandherald.com/ obits.