EVERETT — Dwayne Lane, owner of the auto dealership chain that bears his name and longtime Everett resident, died Thursday, according to his family. He was 80.
Tom Lane said his father had congestive heart failure, but he stuck around long enough to watch his beloved Gonzaga Bulldogs win on his favorite holiday, St. Patrick’s Day.
“He watched Gonzaga win and then his heart failed him,” Tom Lane said.
“He lived life more than everyone I’ve ever met,” Lane said. “He actually went skiing a week and a half ago, which amazed us all.”
Dwayne Lane was a longtime Everett resident and contributor to many charitable causes, served on the board of Providence Regional Medical Center Everett, and regularly contributed to Bethany of the Northwest and Boys and Girls Clubs of Snohomish County.
He was a Port of Everett commissioner for 12 years, which Tom Lane said was one of his favorite roles in the community because he liked being able to contribute to the region’s economic development.
“The Everett community has been so fortunate to benefit from Dwayne’s caring leadership and generosity for many years, whether through his involvement with important community partners like the Port, Naval Station Everett and Providence Regional Medical Center, his advocacy on behalf of the City, or his dedication to our students and their families,” Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson said in a statement.
“He leaves behind a legacy of stewardship and care for community that is an excellent example for all of us,” Stephanson said.
Lane was a leader in business and civic life, but the people who knew him remember a man with seemingly boundless energy, a hometown Irish Catholic boy who made good and gave back to the community.
Snohomish County Councilman Brian Sullivan also knew the Lane family growing up, and the family cars always came from Dwayne Lane’s.
“I’d have to call Dwayne a giant of community service and giving. He was a great man,” Sullivan said. “It breaks my heart.”
Early life
Lane was born May 31, 1935 and grew up in south Everett near Beverly Lane and 75th Street before they were even paved.
In 2001, Lane told the Herald that his father bought him a white mare named Starlight for his eighth birthday. When Lane turned 12, he became a newspaper carrier for the Herald, and he’d deliver 69 papers daily on horseback on a three-mile route.
“The guys all envied me, because I’d get on my horse and away I’d go,” Lane said.
He met his future wife, Rosemary Dempsey, while they were in the sixth grade at Immaculate Conception School. They started dating in the ninth grade and after college, married in the summer of 1958.
“That was his most cherished accomplishment, was getting someone of my mom’s caliber to fall in love and marry him,” Tom Lane said.
In 1953, Lane was a senior at Everett High School when he went to work at Walsh-Platt Dodge washing cars. He worked his way up in the organization, impressing his bosses with his diligence and drive while he was attending college, first at Everett Junior College and then at Western Washington University, where he played football.
Owners Harold Walsh and Frank Platt tapped Lane as their successor in the business. He bought into the dealership in 1966 and became the sole owner in 1971. That dealership is now Dwayne Lane’s Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram on Evergreen Way.
Phil Bannan, whose family owns Scuttlebutt Brewing, said Dwayne Lane was the first friend he made when he moved to Everett 39 years ago.
Their children went to school together and they lived about five houses apart on Grand Avenue.
He described his old friend as feisty, competitive, determined, charitable, fun-loving and energetic. Like others, he recalled Lane’s contributions to charity.
“We’re going to miss having fun with him,” Bannan said. “You could always count on having fun when you were with Dwayne.”
Bannan remembered Lane in his younger days dominating at handball. “He was fairly small,” Bannan said. “For a guy who liked sports, he overcame his small stature by sheer guts and determination.”
Coach lessons
Lane later returned to coach girl’s soccer and football at the Immaculate Conception School. Coaching, both in sports and in life, was Lane’s calling, Tom Lane said.
“What he taught me the most that I wouldn’t have got out of a business book or watching other people, is the power of him believing in people more than they believed in themselves,” Lane said.
“That was staggering to me,” he said. “If you believe in people more than they believe in themselves, they will overachieve.”
Tom Hoban, co-owner and CEO of Coast Group of Companies in Everett, knew Dwayne Lane for 30 years. The two met when Hoban was getting started in the real estate business. “The community… owe(s) a great debt to the example that Dwayne Lane set on how to be a thoughtful and caring business leader.”
Tom Gaffney, a longtime friend and a partner with Moss Adams in Everett, said Lane was always the leader you’d turn to when you wanted to get things done.
They met at Immaculate Conception where Lane was his football coach. Coach Lane drove his charges hard; when they ran laps, Lane would beat them every time, Gaffney said.
“He’d do it backwards to show he was still faster than you were,” he said. “He was a very competitive, fiery kind of guy, he lived life to the fullest, and his energy level was that no one could ever keep up with him.”
Post-retirement
Dwayne Lane officially retired from the family business in 1998, but he kept showing up to say hi and talk to the staff.
“After that point we called him our mascot,” Tom Lane said.
Last fall Tom Lane opened Dwayne Lane’s Chevrolet at Island Crossing, the fifth of six dealerships in the chain to bear his father’s name. The business now includes dealerships in Everett, Arlington, Sedro-Woolley and three in Burlington.
Former Snohomish County Councilman John Koster represented the district the Island Crossing dealership is in and he supported the Lanes’ efforts to build it, which took years.
“He was a good friend, a fine man, tenacious as a pit bull. When he resolved to do something, he saw it through,” Koster said of the elder Lane. “He is one of those people who is always going 90 mph.”
Dwayne Lane’s influence wasn’t confined to Everett. The Cascade Valley Hospital Foundation’s Festival of Trees Gala was hosted at Dwayne Lane Chevrolet in Smokey Point in December. The Lane family was a key sponsor for the Arlington Rotary Club’s Duck Dash three years in a row, donating $10,000 for the 2015 event, which raised more than $212,000.
“Dwayne worked really well with the city and was a great partner,” Arlington Mayor Barbara Tolbert said. “My heart and prayers are with his family.”
Gaffney said he last saw Dwayne Lane Tuesday night at the 2016 Epicurean Affair, a charity dinner at Anthony’s HomePort restaurant in Everett to benefit the Providence Autism Center, part of the hospital’s Children’s Center.
Lane wasn’t feeling well that night, Gaffney said, but by the next day was as energetic as always.
“He was rarin’ to go,” Gaffney said. “Right to the end, in one sense it was the way he would have chosen to go.”
Lane is survived by his wife Rosemary, five children, 15 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, one of whom was born earlier this week, Tom Lane said. Arrangements for a funeral or memorial service are still being made.
“In typical Dwayne Lane fashion, he made it complicated because Holy Week is coming up,” his son said.
Chris Winters: 425-374-4165; cwinters@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @Chris_At_Herald. Noah Haglund, Julie Muhlstein, Jerry Cornfield and Kari Bray contributed to this story.
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