Lawrence J. Kane papers

Lawrence (Larry) Kane was born May 19, 1928 in Waltham, Mass., where he attended Catholic grade school and eventually, college at Brandeis University. After graduating from St. Mary’s in 1946, Kane worked at Potter Press while studying advertising and business at Boston University.  Kane joined the U.S. Army in 1948 and served as a public relations non-commissioned officer and combat correspondent in the Korean War.  While in North Korea, Kane worked on the first paratrooper newspaper ever published from behind enemy lines.  He also wrote speeches for staff officers. Upon his return from Korea, Kane was named the New England Soldier of the Year and married Isabelle Monahan on June 28, 1952.  In 1953, he began working as a reporter for the Waltham Tribune News while taking classes at BU for his new major, journalism.  Later that year, Kane applied and received a scholarship to Brandeis University. Kane left his post at the Waltham Tribune News to serve as assistant to Waltham mayor Paul Shaughnessy.  Shaughnessy hired Kane to help lobby the city council to enact a real estate reevaluation program, which had proved successful in several other Massachusetts towns and which Kane had reported on for the Tribune News. After his graduation from Brandeis in June 1957, Kane accepted a job working as the Assistant Director of Public Affairs at Brandeis, in charge of university publications and news releases.  He also organized press conferences for important campus visitors and speakers including John F. Kennedy, Adlai Stevenson, Nelson Rockefeller, and Eleanor Roosevelt.  In 1958, Kane was elected president of the Brandeis Alumni Association. Kane was promoted to Director of Public Affairs in 1961.  Throughout the 1960s, he also served as head of the three chapels and university representative to the Archdiocese of Boston.  Kane became Assistant to President Abram Sachar in 1965 and Director of Alumni Relations in 1968.  In his last official act as Assistant to President Sachar, Kane purchased Potter Press, where he first worked after graduating from high school.  The site is the current home of the University’s Buildings and Grounds. Kane continued to play an active role in the Waltham community throughout his time at Brandeis, winning him several awards and recognition. He served on many boards and committees including the Waltham Boys Club, the Waltham Citizens Action Program and the Waltham Hospital.  He also chaired the land resources committee of the Waltham Chamber of Commerce and the Waltham City Council.  In 1957, Kane received an award from B’Nai B’Brith for his interracial and interfaith activities.  In 1959, he was elected Waltham’s Man of the Year by the Junior Chamber of Commerce.  Kane also became the third recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Service Award and was the first former Brandeis employee to be elected as Fellow of the University Kane left Brandeis in 1969 to become executive director of the Human Life Foundation established by Catholic bishops following Pope Paul VI’s request for investment and research to make natural methods of family planning more popular among Catholic families.  He served as director into the 1980s.  Kane served as a consultant to Brandeis through his retierment.  He had nine children. Lawrence Kane passed away on July 21, 2013.Note written by Alexandra Wagner-Lough