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Named in honor of the renowned Florida historian, author, and University of Florida history professor Michael V. Gannon, the category awards those who have given more than two decades of service and contributions to the study and promotion of Florida history. The Florida Historical Society board of directors unanimously approved Lane’s nomination for the award.

Jack C. Lane taught full time at Rollins for over 30 years. For several of those years he served as head of the history department. In 1972, he was awarded the Arthur Vining Davis Teaching Award, and at retirement in 1999, he received the Blackman Award for distinguished service to the College. Six years later, at the 2006 commencement exercises, Rollins awarded him an honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters.

Lane has published several books and numerous articles on American military history, foreign relations, and the history of education. In his later years, he turned his scholarly attention to the history of Florida and published several articles on that topic. Pineapple Press published The Florida Reader: Visions of Paradise From the Spanish to the Present, for which the Florida Historical Society awarded Lane the Tebeau Award for best book published on Florida in 1991. During retirement, in addition to his scholarly publications, Lane has conducted historical tours of the Rollins campus, acted as a guest lecturer in several Rollins classes, and served on the boards of Casa Feliz as well as the Winter Park Institute.

The award will be presented during the Florida Historical Society Public History Forum banquet dinner on Friday, May 16, at the DoubleTree Hotel Downtown Orlando. The keynote speaker will be former Florida Supreme Court Justice James E. C. Perry, and the presenters include Leslie Kemp Poole, associate environmental studies professor, and Maurice O’Sullivan, emeritus English professor.

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