Concord Abbott & Downing coach, $132,500.

Show Manager, Dealer Hal McLane Dies

STAMFORD, CONN. – Hal McLane died early Saturday morning, January 13, at Stamford Hospital, following surgery and treatment for kidney cancer. He was 61 years of age.

Mr McLane was the son of Priscilla Palfrey McLane and the late Howard E. McLane of Portsmouth, N.H. He was married to Jane Morse McLane; has a son Marc Rawlins Cardwell and grandson, Marc Alexander Cardwell of Vienna, Va. A resident of New Canaan since 1966, he joined the staff of the Science Department at Saxe Junior High school. For the last three years the family has also spent many weekends at their home in Black Point in Niantic, Conn.

Throughout his life, Mr McLane was an avid sailor, racing and cruising out of the Kittery Point Yacht Club and Portsmouth Harbor as well as the Darien and Norwalk area. More recently he expressed his love of the water by cruising and fishing in the New London and Old Saybrook area.

He was a graduate of Portsmouth High School in 1957, where he played both basketball and baseball; he then graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1961, where he played on the UNH baseball team. Prior to his coming to New Canaan, he had been a teacher in the Science Department at Portsmouth Junior High School, a principal at Barrington, N.H. and a science teacher at Nathan Hale Junior High in Norwalk, Conn.

While in the New Canaan School System, he headed the Science Department at Saxe, the Family Life and Drug Education for all of New Canaan and held leadership roles in state and local educational associations in a variety of areas. He took early retirement in 1989 to pursue a full time career in antiques and show management in the greater New England area.

Mr McLane served as an officer and president of the Connecticut Dog Federation and was a very active member of Ox Ridge Kennel Club. He headed up the board of Genesis, a self-help, anti-drug program located where the ABC House is in New Canaan. For many years he had been a driving force on behalf of the young people as well as the seniors in New Canaan. Most recently he spent four terms as a member of New Canaan’s Park and Recreation Commission where he worked very hard to see the Lapham Center come into being. He also eagerly donated the funds to provide the first defibrillator for the New Canaan Police Department.

For the past 28 years, he expanded his love of antiques and managed a number of shows for the Kiwanis Clubs in New Canaan and Greenwich, as well as events in Norwalk, Darien and other towns in Connecticut. At the same time he was active as an exhibitor and lecturer throughout the Northeast and Middle Atlantic States in the field of Georgian and American silver, Chinese Export porcelain as well as fine period furniture. For eight years he had an antiques shop on the Post Road in Darien. However, he learned that sitting in a shop until customers came in was not his style and he much preferred the antiques show atmosphere. He is remembered by many as a “dealer’s manager.”

Calling hours are scheduled for Friday, January 19 from 4 to 8 pm at the Franklin Hoyt Funeral Home, New Canaan. The memorial service will be held at 11 am on Saturday, January 20 at the New Canaan Congregational Church. The following Saturday, January 27, a memorial service will be held at noon at the North Congregational Church Chapel, Spinney Road in Portsmouth, N.H.

The family suggests in lieu of flowers, contributions in his memory might include: The McLane Family Endowed Scholarship Fund, University of New Hampshire, Alumni Office, Durham, N.H.; The New Canaan Nature Center; or The Center for Hope, Darien, Conn. For more information, contact the Franklin Funeral Home, New Canaan, Conn.