David James Lane, in memoriam, a personal reflection.

Dave Lane, as he was known by all his friends, was the heartbeat of astronomy at Saint Mary’s for three decades. First as the Burke-Gaffney Observatory technician, but going on to become its Director in his last years working at SMU. His work in creating a robotic control framework for the observatory, with it becoming known as the world’s first social-media-controlled telescope, was truly groundbreaking and done essentially entirely on his own.

For all his work at SMU, Dave was equally influential in the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Being both the National President and Halifax Chapter President at one point or another. I know the work with National was often challenging, with many different issues to be navigated. But like everything else he did, he gave it his best and made a real difference. Others are better placed to talk about his true influence there.

Dave was also known for his decades of service in the local media. For many years he participated in call-in radio on CBC, as well as always being prepared to provide an interview on the latest astronomical phenomena for any news agency/paper that asked. These tireless efforts saw him awarded the “Science Champion” for 2007 by the Nova Scotia Discovery Centre. When others won the award he would have fun reminding them they were a few years behind him!

On a personal note, I first met Dave sharing a taxi to the airport in St Johns in 2006. At that time, I had an offer from Saint Mary’s and we had a good chat about the environment in the department that became influential in my decision to accept the offer. He was keen to help support new computing infrastructure, and his enthusiasm for growing the department’s capabilities was clear.

Over the next few years our relationship grew. As I noted earlier, Dave had already done a huge amount of astronomy outreach work in the local media and was happy to have some support on that front. We didn’t always see eye-to-eye on things, but I really cannot remember us ever having a significant disagreement. We supported each other, handing off interview requests between ourselves when we thought one of us would be better on a given subject than ourselves.

By the time 2013 arrived I was Chair of the department and when Dave brought up the idea of a significant renovation of the Burke-Gaffney Observatory for its 40th anniversary I immediately could see the value, despite a little bit of internal resistance within the department. The proposal Dave led (I only helped chart it through some politics) ended up securing money both from the university and more importantly the Medjuck family in a major donation. From 2014-2016 the renovation took place and Dave built the robotic control framework for the telescope, amounting to over 100,000 lines of scripting. Today the telescope is affectionately called “Ralph” after Dr Ralph Medjuck.

Dave was rightfully proud of delivering on all the major goals outlined in the proposal, and all the media attention that the project received was entirely appropriate for the amazing achievement it represented. SMU administration would happily talk about bringing the universe to the world via social media, and one of our former Sobey graduates, John Read, was even coaxed back from California to study astrophysics after seeing a story there.

Dave was also more than willing to share the spotlight, recognizing the value of collaboration and empowering others. Even those who were initially slightly resistant on spending such a considerable sum on a teaching facility were won around in the end. Today, according to our new astronomy technician Tiffany Fields, astronomers from over 37 different countries use the Burke-Gaffney Observatory.

Dave’s diagnosis nine months ago came as a huge shock and highlighted that no matter what we do, nothing in life is guaranteed. Over the years, one of the things we had never quite been able to do with the observatory was to provide access to school students in a structured way. With the NS curriculum having space/astronomy modules in both grades 6 & 9, Dave had always felt there was an opportunity to bring astronomy directly to school students. Together with his wife Michelle they have spent the last few months before his passing, working with SMU on a project to do exactly this, adding yet another important initiative to Dave’s legacy. In a poetic reflection of the urgency of life, the final agreement was completed by Dave, Michelle and the current Burke-Gaffney Observatory Director, Dr Vincent Henault-Brunet, hours before Dave’s final breath.

I send a heartfelt plea to you to please consider donating to the Star Finder project.

So long Dave. To say you’ll be missed is an understatement.

In five billion years when the Sun becomes a red giant we’ll resume our shared journey. ‘til then may your atoms morph and your spirit be carried through others.

Forever your friend and supporter,

Rob