LANE JERRY BRUNNER (1963-2022)

Lane Brunner was born on June 23, 1963. He was married to Molly Ann with three children.

Brunner received a B.S. in Pharmacy from the University of Washington School of pharmacy in 1987. He followed with an M.S. from the University of Texas in 1992 and a PharmD from the University of Georgia in 1995.

He had instructor positions at the University of Houston 1986-1990, University of Georgia 1991- 1993, Medical College of Georgia 1993-1994, and The University of Texas 1994 to 2004.

Brunner joined the ANA in 1982 as member 161378, and in 2003 he converted to ANA life membership 5681. Brunner taught a class on Coins in the Classroom during the ANA Summer Seminar in 2004. On October 4, 2004, he took a position at the ANA as director of numismatic curriculum and education development. In 2005 he was called numismatic outreach director. On December 1, 2006, he was promoted to Deputy Executive Director of Museum, Library and Research Services. He was tasked with developing a proposed American Money and Gold Museum in the Old San Francisco Mint and another museum in Washington, D.C. Neither was to come to pass. He departed on June 15 of 2007.

Brunner became the founding dean of the School of Pharmacy at Regis University in 2007-2010. He was then professor at California Northstate College of Pharmacy 2010-2013. In August of 2013, he became the founding dean of the Ben and Maytee Fisch College of Pharmacy at the University of Texas at Tyler.

Along with co-author John M. Frost, he wrote Double Dimes - the United States Twenty-cent Piece published in 2014.

Brunner died on August 31, 2022, following an extended illness.

It is with great sadness that I report that my friend and co-author, Lane J. Brunner, has passed away peacefully on August 31, in the presence of his family. Last fall, Lane was diagnosed with stage four glioblastoma in his brain. After undergoing radiation and chemotherapy, Lane showed signs of improvement. I visited him in January, and despite some remaining memory impairment, he looked comfortable and was happy to see a couple of my latest twenty-cent piece acquisitions.

Throughout the spring, he made substantial improvement, including significantly decreased edema in the brain and a reduction in tumor size, and messages I received on his progress were guardedly optimistic. We were hopeful that his treatment regimen would result in some extended and quality time. Lane and I were going to get back together to begin work on the Second Edition of our Double Dimes book in January and I was going to visit him later this month to spend a little time with him and make tentative plans. Except for 2021 when I had a mild case of Covid, Lane and I got together every January in Tyler TX for lunch, catching up, and good old double dime coin talk, a highlight of my winter trips.

Unfortunately, a rapid and unexpected downturn in mid-August signaled advancement of the cancer. Lane and his family accepted the inevitable and he entered hospice care. To his family, Lane was Mr. Happy Shiny Guy, as his loving wife Molly put it, the ever optimist.

A celebration of his life was held on Saturday September 3rd, at the University of Texas at Tyler, where Lane was the Founding Dean and a Professor at the College of Pharmacy. Throughout his illness, Lane and his family had great support of his students, faculty, and staff.

His loss will probably hit me the hardest when I resume work on our Second Edition, the project we were looking forward to doing together. And whenever I find some cool twenty-cent piece and want to call him to tell him about it. He was one of those few individuals that I would describe as an R-7. I'll miss him terribly.

My favorite photo is shown below, when Lane (left) and I spent an entire week together immersed in study of over 700 twenty-cent pieces, combining and organizing our individual research for the first time. Lane described the week as the Greatest Nerd-fest in the History of Double Dimes.

 

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
NEW BOOK: DOUBLE DIMES – THE U.S. TWENTY-CENT PIECE (https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n31a02.html)
DOUBLE DIMES BOOK ADDENDA AVAILABLE (https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v19n36a07.html)

 

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