Bill Lane, ex-Sunset magazine publisher, philanthropist and environmentalist, dead at 90

Ex-Sunset magazine publisher Bill Lane dead at 90

PALO ALTO, Calif. — Former Sunset magazine publisher Bill Lane, who donated millions of dollars to Stanford University and environmental causes, has died. He was 90.

Lane also served as U.S. ambassador to Australia and Nauru. Stanford says he died of respiratory failure Saturday at Stanford Hospital.

Lane was born in Iowa and moved to California in 1928, when his father bought the fledgling travel magazine Sunset.

Lane and his brother ran Lane Publishing Co. from the 1950s until 1990, when they sold it to Time Warner.

A 1942 graduate of Stanford, Lane donated $5 million to endow the Bill Lane Center for the American West. He also gave money to help restore a Yosemite National Park amphitheater and preserve Silicon Valley open spaces.