Robert Kingsbury Lane

Marie Louise Reichen Gill died at home on December 1st 2020 in Berkeley, CA. She was 89 years old. Born in Union City, NJ, April 10, 1931, daughter of Max Reichen and Marie Bossart, she graduated from Rockford College with a degree in psychology, and from Syracuse University with an MS in psychology. Marie was the beloved mother of Alison, Christine, Douglas, and Max Gill, grandmother to Dylan Gill, and was friend to her first and second husbands William Gill and William Okal, respectively. She was a circuit school psychologist in the Arcade, NY, and Auburn, CA, school systems and found her work with the children deeply motivating and rewarding. She was a seeker of spiritual enlightenment and aspired to serve toward the realization of higher callings of purpose, and found solace in both physical and spiritual commitments ranging from being Rolfed to her longtime involvement in the Siddha Yoga Foundation toward those goals. Her time spent in various Siddha Yoga ashrams was akin to a homecoming where she found a sense of belonging, comradery, peace, and also humor in life itself. She loved animals, Calvin and Hobbes, and her favorite color was yellow. She was a devoted mother, wife, and friend with a fierce sense of independence and a love for living life and being in nature. She drove across country solo several times in her trusted Volkswagen camper van which she named “NANDI”, and often camped on her own well into her 70s. She was also a great traveling companion - she had a great spirit of adventure and could see the lighter side of things when things didn’t go as planned. She road tripped often to destinations including Mount Shasta, Stinson Beach, and Point Reyes, and particularly loved the burrowing owls at the Berkeley

Marina. She loved silent and/or spiritual retreats and trips to Harbin Hotsprings, as well as camping with her adopted extended family affectionately known as the Pipsissewa tribe. She was inspiringly generous to the homeless and less fortunate. She was deeply loved and will be greatly missed. She will always be in our hearts.

The remarkable Robert Kingsbury Lane--loving husband, father, grandfather, brother, and friend--passed away on February 19, 2022, age 77. Robert spent his last day surrounded by family and the beauty of nature on a sunny and secluded beach, soaking his feet in the Pacific ocean and delighting his grandkids with treasures he’d sifted from the sand.

Robert was born September 1st, 1944, the first son of Jack and Trudy Lane of Los Angeles, California, older brother to Christopher. A third generation Californian, Robert was raised in the Pacific Palisades and received his high school diploma from Harvard School.

A life-long learner, Robert attended UC Berkeley where he pursued many academic passions, including architecture and photography. After graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree in History, Robert returned to Los Angeles to attend Loyola Law School.

Prior to beginning his legal career, Robert served in the Army as a First Lieutenant, stationed in Baltimore, Maryland. It was in Baltimore where Robert met his wife, Reiko. While exploring the architecture of the historic Peabody Institute, he discovered Reiko practicing the pipe organ. He returned weekly to listen to her play. They later married and lived in Piedmont, raising three daughters over their 50 years together.

Fiercely principled, staunchly free-thinking, and endlessly engaged, Robert was a vigorous advocate for his clients, friends and loved ones. As “Dad” to Nysa, Mari, and Lindsay, he was a coach, tutor, musical troupe manager, camp leader, Fourth of July fireworks scofflaw, and life-long trusted advisor. Robert instilled in his daughters the importance of independent thinking, self-reliance, and fighting for what you believe. He modeled these values himself as a vocal, action-oriented proponent of social and environmental justice.

Robert saw the world as an artist - his poetry captured his subject’s emotion and essence; his camera seized the candid, the wild, the golden hour moments; his architectural sketches reflected the practical and the possible. His life was beautiful and uncommonly well-lived.

Robert is survived by his wife Reiko, daughters Nysa, Mari, and Lindsay, five beloved grandchildren, brother Christopher Lane, cousins John Hogle and Barbara Clement, and many nieces and nephews.