Bradley G. Lane, 73, of Swanzey, passed on peacefully in Holden, Mass., at the Holden Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Center on Jan. 4, 2025.
Brad was born in 1951, the son of Kenneth Bradley and Marion Goodwin Lane. He grew up in Claremont. He was married to Linda Gridley Lane for 23 years. With his wide interests and many abilities, Brad enriched the lives of family, friends and the wider community.
In high school Brad was on the tennis and ski teams, as well as being in chorus and in the band and orchestra, where he played French horn. He studied physics at the St. Paul's School in Concord during the summer after his junior year. After graduating from Stevens High School, Brad attended Springfield College, where he earned his bachelor of science and Master of Education.
As a boy, Brad, his parents and his siblings hosted July 4th family reunions at the family cottage on Lake Sunapee for many years, giving dozens of aunts, uncles and cousins a chance to swim, fish, waterski and enjoy a boat ride. Getting together with family remained very important to Brad throughout his life. He displayed a friendly openness in his interactions with people, speaking with his calm, measured, self-assured voice and always ready to share a laugh.
Brad enjoyed a variety of personal interests. Throughout his life he loved swimming, boating and biking. He studied several martial arts forms including, military arnis. Brad also sang bass in The Area Choir in Newport for a number of years and he loved ballroom dancing.
Brad was actively involved in the communities where he lived. He played a pivotal role in Kidz-n-Mo-shun, an all-volunteer, two-week summer enrichment program for children at the Goshen-Lempster Cooperative School from 1999 to 2002. He participated in the men's group "Wings" at Trinity Lutheran Church in Keene. Brad was an enthusiastic member of Grace Community Free Church in Spofford, where he served as a deacon and sang in the choir. In retirement Brad wrote a series of well-reasoned letters to the editor published in The Keene Sentinel about issues that were current and challenging. He always looked for common ground among people with differing views.
Brad was skilled in the building trades. He worked as a Building Inspector for the Town of Newport from 1990 to 2001, and was a longtime building code official for the City of Keene until his full retirement in 2018. Prior to those jobs, he worked at the YDC youth center in Portsmouth teaching the building trades. For a time he owned his own construction company, maintained several rental properties and did snow plowing. For his last major building project, Brad did the contracting and much of the labor on a modular home in Troy, which became one of the vacation rentals where he and Linda so enjoyed welcoming their guests.
Brad is survived by his wife, Linda Gridley Lane, who remained devoted and steadfastly hopeful at his bedside for well over a year. He is also survived by his sister, Carol (Al) Gader, of Bradenton, Fla.; his sister-in-law, Carol Smythe, of Grahamsville, N.Y.; his nieces, Donna (Jon) Kelley of Harvard, Mass., Jennifer (Roger) Ballard of Mongaup Valley, N.Y., and Lori Anne (Jay) Wolkoff of Silver Springs, Md.; his nephews, Mark (Angel) Gader, of Plant City, Fla., Robert (Marylin) Jones of Grahamsville, N.Y., Andrew (Yvonne) Jones also of Grahamsville, N.Y., and Timothy (Lisa) Gridley of Santa Monica, Calif.; and his nephew-in-law, Mark Selvaggio, of Delta Junction, Alaska. There also are dearly loved grandnieces and grandnephews, great-grandnieces and great-grandnephews and cousins, as well as many dear friends whom Brad would have wanted to mention here if space allowed. Be assured that he was honored to know you and to call you Friend.
Brad was predeceased by his parents; his brother, Otis K. Lane, and sister-in-law, Frances H. Lane; his brother-in-law, Daniel J. Smythe; his brother-in-law, Vernon Gridley Jr.; and his sister-in-law, Lucy T. Gridley; a nephew, James Warren; and a niece, Kathy Selvaggio.
There will be visiting hours at the Foley Funeral Home at 49 Court St. in Keene on Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025, from 5 to 7 p.m. A memorial service will be held at Grace Community Church in Spofford on Friday, Jan. 24, 2025, at 1 p.m., with Pastor Lew Miller officiating. Burial will take place at the Hope Hill Cemetery in North Charlestown with date and time to be announced. A picnic is planned in the spring for the New York contingent of Brad's family.
Donations in Brad's memory may be made to the Claremont Soup Kitchen, Claremont; The Area Choir, Newport; Branches Pregnancy Resource Center, Brattleboro; Time and the Valleys Museum, Grahamsville, N.Y.; Grace Community Free Church, Spofford; or to another place of worship or charity of your choice.