Charles Kane, 72, helped unify Seattle community colleges
Former Seattle Community College Chancellor Chuck Kane could go from asking corporate leaders for million-dollar scholarship checks to picking up trash on Broadway on Capitol Hill.
He did it because he believed every student deserved a chance and because he wanted students to feel respected by a school that kept itself clean.
Charles A. "Chuck" Kane, the education leader and basketball coach who brought together the three Seattle community colleges, died yesterday morning in Riverside, Calif., at the age of 72 after a long fight with prostate cancer.
As chancellor from 1992 to 1999, Mr. Kane raised one of the largest community-college campaigns to create student scholarships and turned the Seattle Community Colleges into a nationally recognized model.
"He always said everybody needs a hand up, not a handout," said Constance Rice, former vice chancellor.
"He saw his role of lifting people so they can lift themselves," Rice said.
Seattle was the final stop in a teaching and coaching career that spanned more than 40 years.
Mr. Kane was born in Bozeman, Mont., but grew up in Riverside, raised by a sheriff father and a mother who worked at the University of California there.
He played basketball in high school, then at community college and won a basketball scholarship to Pepperdine University, where he served as student-body president before graduating in 1954.
He received his master's degree and doctorate in education administration from the University of Southern California.
After joining the Army and coaching high-school basketball, Mr. Kane became the basketball coach at Long Beach City College, where he began his administrative career.
He eventually returned to Riverside as superintendent and president of Riverside Community College.
In 1992, Mr. Kane came to Seattle to become community-college chancellor, still using his basketball coaching skills.
During his time in Seattle, Mr. Kane got up every morning at 5 a.m., then often had breakfast at Lowell's in Pike Place Market, where not a single server escaped a spiel on the virtue of going back to school.
Seattle's three community colleges gradually came together under his tenure.
"Everyone is now pulling their resources for the whole of the system rather than their own campus," says Rice.
The collegiality he helped forge was what allowed Mr. Kane to raise more than $20 million from businesses and individuals to create scholarships.
"He did it so that (students) were able to better themselves, to improve their lives and their standard of living for their families, for women and ethnic minorities that had been out struggling," said Rice.
Mr. Kane took that diversity ethic and applied it to his own administration, hiring presidents of color at all three Seattle community colleges. For his efforts, he received the Edwin T. Pratt Award from the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle and the Award for Human Rights from the Northwest National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
After he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, Mr. Kane retired to Riverside in 1999 to take care of his mother.
He is survived by his wife, Marie Kane; his brother Clark Kane; his children Russell Kane, Karen Kane, Carol Bracey, Kathy Bonelli, Kristy Mapes and stepson Dan Hays; 13 grandchildren; and two step-grandchildren.
Memorial donations may be made in Mr. Kane's name to the Charles A. Kane scholarship fund at the Seattle Community Colleges; Riverside Community College; the general scholarship fund at Long Beach City College or Rio Hondo College; the Riverside Sport Hall of Fame; or any hospice organization.
Services will be at The Grove Community Church, 5320 Victoria Ave., Riverside, Calif., at 2 p.m. Thursday. For more information, call Acheson & Graham Mortuary, 909-688-1221.
Sharon Pian Chan: 206-464-2958 or schan@seattletimes.com.