It is now six years of rainbows and mist and memories lingering over the San Juan islands and especially Lummi Island. As we move from quarantine, may love give us life and life give us love as Dennis always said.

Remembering Uncle Den! It's hard to believe it's been 4 years since you left us Uncle Den and i can honestly say that me, Keith, and Lester think of you all the time and miss you. May God bless you in Heaven forevermore. 
Tate

As his 75th birthday has come and gone, his presence continues in the rainbows and the days and nights over places of his choice where his ashes now move beyond the waters and beaches of the Big Island and the Salish Sea, as well as his beloved Greenwich Village and with his mother, father and brothers in Westfield. Kiluaea no doubt included his ashes as she erupted and expanded this year.
We can see his vision of true community television programing through Native American and local programs now being shown. His great spirit continues through his loving gifts of wisdom and laughter to all who knew him and listened.

Heaven's greatest angel is still in our hearts and thoughts. Until we meet again Dear Uncle Den, may god bless you forever more. 
Love,
Tate

Three years have moved us along, but missing your laughter, helping and inclusive spirit will continue for me and all who had the gifts of your presence in our lives

I am remembering the love of my life after three years of finding ways to move on knowing he is with us every day in so many ways.

Happy Bday Uncle Den! You will always be in my thoughts and prayers. Thank you for lighting the way for my journey in this life. I'll see you on the other side.

Tate

I am Dennis's 1st cousin, his mother and my mother were sisters. I finally reconnected with him a few years ago only to lose touch again. Now to find out this! My heart is truly shattered!

Happy Birthday Uncle Den, Gone but never forgotten.

Much love radiating out to you and your PappaD...

Two days ago in May 17 2016 came my 72nd Birthday. Had a shot of our preferred añejo Barrilito three star Rum and lit up a Montecristo Habano in memory to the old days and the times we sat in my living room enjoying the cigars and libations over our magnificent diverse conversations. I miss our annual reunions and you my friend. If you take your time and don't reincarnate before my time to transcend arrives I may join you and do some reminiscences about our spiritual travels across the ages.  Your Friend Juan

We have celebrated Dennis’s birthdays together over the past 20 years, including our  Year of the Monkey every 12 years.
As you know, he was a great story teller who was continually in the midst of writing  chapters of a series that was evolving from his deep research concerning northern Africa,  the Middle passage and the men and women who made up a black regiment  that fought in the American Revolution in Provincetown, MA.  He called me his Aaron ("short for editor," I said) and emailed pieces to me to correct or comment on and send back to him for inclusion in his growing novel.  The passage about water below was his last. His lungs were filled and he had stopped playing the flute and singing, but he never stopped creating. This piece was written to go into his descriptions of captives being chained together for months in the hold of the ship where no single language was spoken and no uniform religion practiced or prayers said . Nights are filled with the sounds of sharks which followed the slave trading ships bumping against the walls as they fed on bodies being dumped overboard. Terror and screaming filled the nights of panic in the deep cargo hold.

  The captive Prince, who is protagonist in this section, has helped the cargo of captives to develop a rudimentary language among themselves and this description of being at sea precedes the mantra he taught them to breath in and out together. The breathing together to assuage panic through the nights led to another kind of panic for the ship’s crew when they went into the dark of the hold to be greeted by what sounded like a single huge beast breathing there.:
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The Great Water of Emptiness: 

       The Great Waters of Emptiness (The Atlantic Ocean) the day, the night, the Sun, the Moon the vastness of the of the water never stops. It is said that great rivers run under the water.
The rivers stir the waters and change the ways of the water. The water in a storm can be whipped by the wind and throw itself several hundred feet high. It can swallow up whole ships and carry them miles across the water. The water can then turn around and become as smooth as glass the next day. The men on the ship compare the moods of the ocean to the moods of a woman.

     One Moonlight evening huge billowing clouds came rushing in. The clouds quickly surrounded the moon and the sea began to swell. The winds began to build and the ship began to heave to and fro. Lighting began crack and thunder rolled. In short order huge winds began to grow and the waves began to engulf the ship. In the lower crew decks all became quiet and the banter was replaced by fear.  The crack of lighting added brief flashes of light and cascading of water began entering the hold of the ship. The fear, the darkness and the water began filling the ship.

Dennis Lane, 
April 21, 2016

Thinking of you and the great memories that we shared and wisdom filled conversations that meant so very much. Happy birthday Uncle Den R.I.P.

I came back to Bellingham after a 7 year absence to find this news. My heart was sadden as Dennis is so much part of this community. Dennis will continue to be missed. His bear hugs were supreme.

My deepest condolences to Kay and Family . Denis and I were good friends since 1979. I will miss him and our conversations on nature, anthropology, humanities and philosophy. Older than me by three months I came to considered him much more than a friend; he became my brother and a kindred soul. May he Rest in Peace.

To my dear Uncle Dennis, now that you have returned home to the final resting place the table has been set and you are once again reunited with the family that you love so very much. The world has been a better place for knowing you and a sadder one for losing you. Our thoughts and prayers will be with the entire Lane family for an eternity.

My close friendship with Dennis began in the eighth grade and continued thru the early years of my marraige. He was one of the most amazing people I have ever known. After loosing touch for a few years we ran into each other in the Village one evening and spent an hour standing on the curb catching up . We exchanged contact info and that was the last time I saw Dennis. We traded a few phone messages and then his phone number was no longer in service.Not being able to track him down had haunted me over the years and lately I found myself thinking of him often. I had a premonition the other day that he was no longer with us and that was when I googled him and found his obit. I would give my right arm for the picture of him and me that used to hang on the wall at Philips B & G on Staten Island. Dennis my good friend Rest in Peace

I am Dr. Ed Bereal and I have travelled with and listened to Dennis’s stories since 1995 when he heard me talk and saw some footage I had brought back from Front lines of the Kosovo.…war 

This huge dark figure rose in the balcony of the old Museum and posed the provocative kind of question Dennis soon became well known for here in Whatcom county and wherever he went in his lifelong discovery and teaching process.

He said he was here because of Love (you never know where loving a woman, Kay Sardo, will take you) and it was love of people and information he continued to give and push wherever he went. And he did travel, Dennis was a whirlwind of effort on behalf of people who had no voice, as television and technology grew more and more critical in people’s lives and less and less aveilable. He worked tirelessly on both coasts, locally and nationally to bring some conscience to every venue in which he operated. He mentored and called for student volunteers and lobbied endlessly. Kay tells me his last phone calls were to schools and Comcast folks to make sure their low income families get free surplus computers and hookups this year.

Kay and the Opportunity Council spoke to his passion for giving voice to people who have none, including many videos of their work, a 5 year-long radio program hosted by Colleen Berg and utilization of discarded gaming kiosks to provide touchscreen information for people who come looking for housing, food, childcare and assistance with getting and keeping heat in their homes .

Always playful and knowledgeable, Dennis escaped his New Jersey upbringing as part of a 60's Black family in Newark and Westfield, to Harlem streets and the New York Public library where he vowed he got his real education . However, he used the GI Bill and those of his cousins to attend Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, Penn State and the University of Wisconsin to study communications and geology/paleontology.

In fact, he was a lifelong direct learner and facilitator of other’s learning. Even before volunteering to join the Marines, serving in Vietnam and Latin American embassy and undercover work, he went as a deckhand on a freighter to Mecca to learn what Islam really was. And learning Islam is many peaceful colors, he came back to confront the street preacher’s “White Devils” rhetoric against white people saying for the rest of his life that ” Hate is Love gone hungry.”

Dennis’ warm announcer’s voice, and musical talent as well his love of the martial arts took him through the many lives he enjoyed telling of. There was little mentioned of this mid century in our “brothers” conversations that he had not carefully researched or been part of. There is not time here to begin telling of his fascinating life which includes everything from pirate radio/ jazz of course/ out of Amsterdam to voice overs and Hollywood script work, to puppet theaters, to creation of Farmer’s Markets in New York City , his own NPR programs and Public access shows which Florence Rice still broadcast from Harlem, to flute playing with Yussef Lateef, to giving cameras to kids to make their own videos of their Harlem lives and Bullying and Exclusion in Seattle schools, to creation of public access television and low power radio stations here and around the country as well as serving on important volunteer Boards , nationally, statewide and locally, the early Whatcom Human Rights Task Force, The Farm Fund, Martin Luther King Day and organizing cross cultural events dedicated to inclusion through potlucks. Dennis did love food, in fact, one of his last radio shows in New York was “What’s to Eat?” 

He felt truly honored when Catherine Talley and the seniors here at Lummi welcomed him to lunch to learn from them every time he had a question about ways he could use his technology and communication skills to be of help at Lummi. He played his flute at the Lummi graveyard to honor Catherine, Cha Da Skatum and those whose names may not yet be mentioned

I know Dennis and Kay feel honored and their lives incredibly enriched by having Darrell Hillaire of Lummi Nation as his brother of choice in this life.

From Frank James MD Bellingham, WA
The crossing over of Dennis Lane is a sea change for our community. He was a quiet yet strong leader that was so much about compassion and caring and so little about himself. Rooted in NYC but a happy transplant to our fair city always in the loving company of his bride and civic leader. They created so much good will and so many institutions in our community that it is hard to account for them all. But most of all Dennis was a man of integrity. A person that saw life for what it is but always held the highest ideals for himself and offered that perspective with kindness and respect. I was fortunate to be with him and Kay through the identification of the conditions that he suffered with, but so grateful that the suffering was not long lasting. I giant of a man in so many respects, yet private and quiet and always there for those of us that needed anything at all.

Thank you Dennis for your love and compassion for all of us. Kay Sardo our love is with you even from the other side of the planet.

Dennis sat behind me in Mr. Scott's English class, first period, senior year. We talked about jazz, piano - Jelly Roll Morton, and trumpet - Bix Beiderbeck and King Oliver. I lost track of him after we graduated, but always wondered where he was, and prayed for his well being. 
Kay, I only knew him for my senior year. I cried when I read that he passed. My prayers and sincerest condolences are extended to you and the family.

I did not know well, but my best memory was listening to him play Vince's "Cast your fate to the Wind'. on piano in auditorium. Think of him every time I hear the song.

So sad to hear that Dennis has passed: yet we know he is now in a much better place. We shared a few classes at Westfield High. I called him "Pie" and one day he suprised me with a cross necklace. Prayers to his family and friends.

I remember Dennis well from my years at Westfield High School. He was a wonderful friend and I had wondered what became of him. When I received news of his passing, I was surprised that he was not too far away, as I now live just outside Seattle. My heart and prayers go out to his family and loved ones. I will cherish my memories of him many years ago. My name then was Martha Johansen.

Dear Family of Dennis,

I'm sorry that you are experiencing the mourning of losing a love one. Many if not all of us has experienced this, but I would like to share a brief scripture that will may just bring you comfort.

(Revelation 21:4) And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away.” Thanks for reading.

i remember DENNIS SO well. he would visit me at my stall at the bham farmer's market. and HE would buy flowers from me, after the market, was over... HE always Had the SWEETEST TWINKLE in HIS eye.. and SO MUCH INNER JOY... and sweet LOVE and adoration fOR LIFE... his esprit de force was SO CONTAGIOUS.... he was a VERY GENTLE man.. may . DENNIS rest in peace. he is with THE ANGELS NOW.... and i am so sad that he left us.........LOVE you , dude....... and thank you for YOUR SWEET SPIRIT...

Kay, I'm so sorry to hear this. I only met Dennis a couple of times and he was one of those people you just instantly connected with. I was so inspired to hear his stories about community radio and some of the projects he had worked on. He was soft spoken but had a glimmer of something special in his eye. He was a kind, lovely soul. I hope you will take some solace in the fact that he inspired myself and others to keep the dream of community media alive.

Dennis was the most amazing and selfless man I ever knew. Whatever was going on was not about him, it was about whoever was around him or whoever he wanted to help.

He had great personal courage and profound inner serenity in any situation or interaction. His kindness to others was unparalleled.

We are all richer for having known him.

I Remember When
Dear Uncle Den,
I can remember when I was around five years old or so we would visit Nana and Papa almost every weekend, those were the good old days, Lester and I really looked forward to seeing the uncles, but at that time Uncle Bill and Uncle Leon were away, Uncle Bill was in the Marines serving his country over in Japan and I believe Uncle Leon was in California at that time and Uncle Den was at home, we were always so excited to spend time with uncle Den, we saw him as a pillar of strength, just his physical presence alone was so overwhelming to us kids. We would try to physically challenge him, of course to no avail, but we enjoyed it just the same, typically those events would turn out with him playing the part of a human tree and us kids climbing all over him. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I will remember Uncle Den for his strength, not only physically but emotionally as well as spiritually, I truly cherished what we had, he was my friend my Uncle and my big brother, after all we were only ten years apart. You’re already missed and missed by so many, but I know that we will always be spiritually connected.

         Nephew Keith

Beautiful bear of a man with an incredibly light, bright soul- I got lucky having gotten the chance to meet him and know his family, who are a large source of the fuel for his soul- which will keep burning for him- loving him- Papa Denis, keep burning bright, keep illuminating our hearts , feel surrounded by our love.