April 25, 2015

Finest Hour 119, Summer 2003

Page 12

FRIDAY HARBOR, WASHINGTON— When he was a young, up-and-coming partner in the Seattle public relations firm of Merry, Calvo, Lane & Baker in 1965, Jim Lane was bitten by the Churchill bug and, among other things, managed to go out and buy a Navy blue and white polka dot tie to go with his three piece, pinstriped Navy-blue suit.

From these origins, rooted primarily in respect for literary grace and style, Jim Lane—now a Governor of The Churchill Centre—went on to a career with Hill & Knowlton, the international public affairs firm, living and working in Australia, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Chicago and New York. In every stopover he haunted local bookshops, seeking to add to his collection of Churchill first editions and some passable reproductions of well known Churchill-on-canvas portraits.

In New York in the early 1990s Jim learned of the Churchill organization through a chance conversation, and became first a member, then a contributor and, finally, a Clementine Churchill Associate. At present he is actively engaged with Vice Chairman of Trustees Laurence Geller and the “War Cabinet” in the Centre’s “Campaign D-Day”—a task he happily undertakes from his home in the San Juan islands, eighty miles northwest of Seattle and six miles east of Victoria, British Columbia. Here he paints, writes, does a minimal amount of consulting, collects Churchill trivia, and adds to his library.

Jim is a former serving officer in the U.S. Navy, and is presently president of the local library board, and a member of the Oversight Committee of the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs at the University of Washington.