Merton Chesleigh Lane was born September 4, 1893 in Everett, Massachusetts to George W. Lane and Margie Watson Brewster Lane. When Lane was just a year old, his father died of typhoid fever, and he, his mother, and his brother, Elton Percy Lane, moved in with his maternal grandfather, John C. Brewster. Lane lived in Everett for the remainder of his childhood.
In 1915, Lane married Marion Elsie Bridgman, a violinist in Amherst, Massachusetts. That same year, he graduated from Massachusetts Agricultural College (what is now the University of Massachusetts, Amherst) with a Bachelor of Science in Entomology. Shortly after graduation, Lane worked for the Smith & Wesson Firearms Company. While working for Smith & Wesson, Lane also taught in local public schools and worked for the State of Massachusetts as a nursery inspector. In 1916, Lane’s first child, Robert Alson Lane, was born in Springfield, Massachusetts.
In 1917, Lane was hired as the Scientific Assistant in the USDA’s Bureau of Entomology, and moved his family west to Forest Grove, Oregon, where he began work on a research project investigating the biology and control of the Hessian fly. His second child, Dorothy Bridgman Lane, was born in Forest Grove in 1918.
In 1919, Lane was transferred briefly to Berkeley, California, where he continued his research on the Hessian fly. Just one year later, however, Lane was transferred to Ritzville, Washington to begin work on what would eventually be known as the Pacific Northwest Wireworm Project (his third child, Priscilla Brewster Lane, was born in Ritzville in 1923). What began as a single research outpost in Ritzville eventually expanded with the addition of research offices in Toppenish, Washington; Parma, Idaho; Bozeman, Montana; and Walla Walla, Washington. Lane was named supervisor of this research, and in 1928 moved with his family to Walla Walla. Lane worked with OSU entomologist Louis Gentner on the identification of insects as part of the Pacific Northwest Wireworm Project.
Lane retired from the Pacific Northwest Wireworm Project, and the USDA, in 1959. Throughout his career, he held membership in a number of historical, professional, and scientific societies including the Sons of the American Revolution, the Entomological Society of America, the Society of Systematic Zoology, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Society of Sigma Xi. After retirement, Lane remained active in many of these of these societies, and was charter president of the Washington Society of the Order of the Founders and Patriots of America. In 1953, Lane was awarded the Superior Service Award by the USDA for his “outstanding leadership and ability in planning, directing, and conducting research which led to the development of practical methods of controlling wireworm.” Merton’s wife Marion passed away in Tacoma, Washington in July 1960. Merton C. Lane died in Medford, Oregon March 13, 1975.
[Additional source: Journal of Economic Entomology, Volume 69, Issue 5, page 702. Accessed October 21, 2020.]
Author: Sydney Klupar