Ronald E. Lane

1932 - 2016

Ronald E. Lane

St. Cloud, MN

June 8, 1932 - May 28, 2016

Ronald E. Lane, age 83, St. Cloud, MN, died Saturday, May 28, 2016 at Country Manor Care Center, Sartell, MN.

Mass of Christian Burial will be Tuesday, July 26, 2016 at 10:30 AM at St. Paul's Catholic Church, St. Cloud, MN. Visitation will be Monday, July 25, 2016 from 4:30 to 8:00 PM at Benson Funeral Home, St. Cloud, MN and one hour prior to the service at the church on Tuesday. A time of prayer and reflection will be at 8:00 PM at the funeral home on Monday. Burial will be in St. John's Abbey Cemetery, Collegeville, MN.

Ronald Edward Lane was born in the Italian district of Grandview, Columbus, Ohio. With his parents, Edward and Mary (Mangio) Lane, Ron was surrounded by an extended family and neighborhood rich in the culture of Italian immigrants which he dearly loved. When he was 13, however, and experiencing health issues, his parents were advised to move to the drier climate of Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was there, in 1955, that Ron received his BA from the College of St. Joseph on the Rio Grande.

In the fall of that year Ron began graduate studies in philosophy at the Medieval Institute connected to the University of Toronto. While there he was introduced by mutual friends to Bethany MacDonald, a student in piano performance at the Royal Conservatory at the University of Toronto. Ron put aside his philosophical studies and took an editorial position at Copp Clark Publishing Company in Toronto. The young couple was married in the summer of1957 in Bethany's hometown of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. Two years later, following the birth of their sons Kevin and Chris, Bethany and Ron moved to St. Cloud, where Ron had accepted a position at The Liturgical Press. He also became a part-time teacher in philosophy at the College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph. In 1962 their daughter, Maria, was born and Bethany and Ron built their home in St. Paul's parish.

Ron earned an MA in Philosophy in 1965 from the University of New Mexico and started teaching full-time at CSB. The births of Greg in 1965 and Alan in 1968 completed the family, and a PhD from the University of Minnesota in 1978 completed Ron's formal educational pursuits.

In 1979, Ron spent several weeks in Italy with Kevin who was a student in the CSB/SJU Greco-Roman program. Later study of Italian culminated in Bethany and Ron leading students on the Greco-Roman program to Greece, Turkey, and Italy in 1984. They were joined by Kevin, who served as an assistant, his wife, Katy, and Alan. Having recently translated his Grandmother Mangio's memoirs, Ron happily re-established contact with his Mangio cousins.

Ron, always a deeply believing Catholic, sustained a keen interest and taught courses in the richness of the spiritual traditions of both East and West. In 1986, Bethany and Ron brought the first of seven groups of CSB/SJUstudents on January-Term contemplative retreats to the Spiritual Life Institute's Nada Hermitage in Crestone, Colorado. After Ron took early retirement in 1992, he and Bethany spent winter months in the midst of Crestone's spiritual, artistic, and healing community, where Alan built a beautiful small adobe home for them. Ron also became involved with the Jacques Maritain International Institute.

Ron's parents moved to St. Benedict's Senior Community in St. Cloud in the early 1990s, where he cared for them till their passing. Bethany and Ron's trips to Italy continued and in 2001 they experienced a strong encounter with the Focolare, an ecclesial movement founded in 1944 by Chiara Lubich in Trent, Italy during the Second World War. Ron's last trip to visit relatives in Italy was in 2011 when he and Bethany were accompanied by Kevin and Katy, and Maria and her husband, Morris.

Ron had a capacity for deep friendship and an innate kindness. He also had definite story-telling abilities with a theatrical flair and a fine sense of humor (students and staff will recall his participation in the Faculty Follies). Despite some health issues he led a very full life. Even in later years he remained engaged, concerned about the life of his church, his country, and the world, and most especially the well-being of Bethany and their children and grandchildren.

Dying peacefully on the 28th of May, 2016, Ron leaves to mourn and celebrate his life Bethany, his wife of 59 years, of St. Cloud; Kevin (Katy) LaNave of St. Cloud, Marco LaNave of Jacksonville, Florida, and Paul LaNave, of Minneapolis; Chris LaNave of St. Cloud; Maria (Morris) LaNave Johnson of Tucker, Georgia; Greg (Anna) LaNave, and Lucia, Dominic, Antonio, and Vincent LaNave of Burke, Virginia; and Alan (Charlene) Lane of Jacksonville, North Carolina.