Lane Wallace and Susan McLean 

at home in Soquel, July 28, 2026

 I was interested in journalism as far back as grade school, but didn't pursue it until freshman year at Foothill, where I wrote sports for the school paper.

  While majoring in journalism at San Jose State (1968-70) I worked part-time at the Palo Alto Times -- wow, my hometown paper! In 1969, I covered 25 prep football games for $7 a game. They wouldn't let me cover Paly.

  At my first job after college, in Whittier, they wanted me to write general news  -- the part that keeps the sports section dry. That's what I did the rest of my career. I stayed in journalism because I didn't know how to do anything else.

  I landed in Santa Cruz County in 1973 at the weekly papers in Felton and Scotts Valley.  I kept bumping into people from Palo Alto (nobody got hurt) in Santa Cruz, including District Attorney Peter Chang, Paly '54, and county Supervisor Gary Patton, Paly '61, a key player in the environmental movement. Ken Miller, my Spanish teacher at Paly, was selling real estate in Boulder Creek when I met him by chance in 1973 or 1974.

  I was a reporter for the Register-Pajaronian in Watsonville 1979-96 (favorite job), and a reporter and copy editor at the Monterey Herald 1996-2014. In retirement, I'm busy volunteering, including tutoring adults in English in Watsonville, advising students in the Cabrillo College journalism department, and doing publicity for the Scotts Valley Hitchcock Festival. 

   Partner Susan McLean and I are happy at home in Soquel, Santa Cruz County. 

  My mom lived in the same house on Cowper Street 1943-2009, through two 30-year marriages. I visited often, and still enjoy going to Palo Alto. It's still home to me.