Notice regarding Professor Emeritus John Robert Kane
Provost Michael R. Halleran sent the following message to the campus community June 1, 2016 - Ed.
Dear colleagues,
I write to share the news that Professor John Robert Kane, age 80, died peacefully on May 26, 2016, following complications of a fall. He served on the W&M Physics Department faculty for 42 years, retiring as a Professor Emeritus in 2007.
Born May 16, 1936, in Washington D.C., he was one of five children of Thomas J. Kane and Mary Helen Turke. He grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, where he attended Loyola High School and Loyola College, receiving a B.S. in Physics in 1959. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from Carnegie Institute of Technology, now Carnegie Mellon University.
After joining the College in 1964, Professor Kane taught both undergraduate and graduate courses and conducted research as an experimental particle physicist. With colleagues Morton Eckhause, Ph.D., Robert Welsh, Ph.D., the late Rolf Winter, Ph.D., and the late Robert Siegel, Ph.D., he was a founding member of the Physics Department's experimental high-energy group. He considered these colleagues his close and life-long friends. He authored or co-authored over 60 peer-reviewed scientific papers. As a senior member of the high-energy group, he supervised many doctoral students and was a co-principal investigator for a large number of National Science Foundation grants that the group was awarded. His work focused on fundamental particles called muons, pions, and kaons, and it took him to research facilities throughout the United States and abroad.
Surviving are his wife of 31 years, Kathleen W. Kane, who adored him. Also surviving are sister-in-law Rose-Marie P. Kane of Lutherville, MD, widow of his older brother Thomas J. Kane Jr., their children Thomas J. Kane III, Mary Jeanne Ordakowski, and Joanne Davis; sister Mary Margaret Donohue of Ellicott City, MD, widow of James H. Donohue, their children Patricia Galvin, Kathleen Henn, and Margaret Bernhard; brother Francis R. Kane, Ph.D. and wife Patricia of Richmond, VA, their children John P. Kane and Matthew J. Kane; sister Eileen K. Stork, M.D. and husband John Stork, M.D. of Cleveland, OH, and their children Caitlin E. Stork, M.D., Michael P. Stork, and James L. Stork; and over a dozen great-nieces and nephews.
Nelsen Funeral Home is coordinating arrangements. Father James Glass will preside at the Mass on Saturday, June 4, at 2:00 p.m. in the Catholic Campus Ministry Chapel, the former St. Bede Church along Richmond Road, 10 Harrison Ave. Immediately afterwards there will be an inurnment in the St. Bede Columbarium at the current St. Bede Church, 3686 Ironbound Road. A brief reception will follow in the church Commons. If a remembrance is considered, the family requests that in lieu of flowers a contribution be made to the College of William & Mary (memo: Physics 0125), or to a local charity of one's choice.
Sincerely,
Michael
