Pulaski County ArArchives Biographies.....Lane, Shepard Augustus 
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Robert Sanchez http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00027.html#0006574 August 4, 2009, 8:51 pm

Source: See Full Citation Below Biography
Author: S. J. Clarke (Publisher, 1922)

SHEPARD AUGUSTUS LANE.
    Shepard Augustus Lane, general manager for Arkansas of the Southwestern Bell
Telephone Company, with headquarters at Little Rock, where he makes his home,
was born in La Grange, Georgia, January 23, 1880, and is a son of R. R. and Mary
(Bradfield) Lane. The father was born in La Grange in 1849 and the mother's
birth there occurred in 1859. They were married in their native city in 1878 and
there still reside. The father was for many years actively identified with the
management of a plantation, but is now living retired. His political support has
always been given to the democratic party. To him and his wife have been born
five sons and three daughters, of whom one son died in infancy, while the other
members of the family are living.

    Spending his youthful days under the parental roof, Shepard A. Lane pursued
his education in the La Grange public schools until graduated from the high
school with the class of 1S96. He afterward attended the Georgia School of
Technology and on leaving that school secured a position with the Southwestern
Bell Telephone Company at Birmingham, where he remained for three months. He was
then sent to Norfolk, Virginia, on a job and continued in field work in various
places until 1901, when he was made manager of the Model Exchange for the
Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo, having charge of the exchange with one
thousand phones, his duty being also to receive visitors and represent the
company generally. Mr. Lane was selected from among many other employes, a
compliment not only to his business ability in telephone service, but also as to
his general adaptability in meeting people. After the exposition was over Mr.
Lane was made manager of two exchanges in Buffalo, New York, and there continued
until January 1, 1905, when he resigned with the Bell Telephone Company and
accepted a position as assistant general superintendent for the Federal
Telephone Company, then the largest independent company in existence. In this
connection Mr. Lane was located in Buffalo for three years and was then
transferred to Geneva, New York, as district manager for central New York, which
position he held until 1911. His next transfer took him to Niagara Falls with
the same company. A year later he resigned and returned to the Bell Telephone
Company as special representative of the general manager at St. Louis. In the
spring of 1913 he was made district manager for northern Missouri, with
headquarters at Hannibal, where he continued until February 12, 1914, when he
was transferred to Little Rock as division commercial superintendent for
Arkansas and on the 1st of July, 1920, he was made divisional general manager
for Arkansas of the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company and now fills that
position. One who has known him long and well wrote of him as follows:

    "Mr. Lane developed a liking for the telephone game early and has
specialized in it since, with a record of accomplishments which few people can
ever hope to equal or surpass. His appealing personality and his sense of fair
dealing with the public in general, particularly with those who work for him and
with those whose duty it is to regulate public utilities, has won for him an
enviable reputation. Mr. Lane believes, as Abraham Lincoln once said, that 'with
public sentiment nothing can fail, without it nothing can succeed.' In these few
words may be summed up the secret of his success in the telephone business. He
believes in fair dealing with the public; that they are entitled to good service
at a fair and reasonable rate; and that the public should, in return, grant the
utility a fair rate of return on its investment.

    "Commonly known to a state-wide circle of friends as 'Gus,' Mr. Lane has a
method of approaching and convincing people that is rarely seen in men of his
position. He is inclined to be rather exacting in handling the affairs of his
company; although he does not believe in exacting unnecessary or useless
details, desiring results more than the method in which they are obtained, and
expects those men under him, in supervisory capacity, to accomplish and handle
their work without burdensome supervision. His sense of fair dealing makes him
an easy man to work for; having come up from the ranks, makes it easy for him to
appreciate an employe's position. He rarely makes the mistake of misjudging the
ultimate results of a situation, or the character or ability of one of his men."

    On the 18th of June, 1904, in Buffalo, New York, Mr. Lane was married to
Susanne DeLafayette, who was born at Balston Spa, New York, January 17, 1880,
and is a graduate of the State Normal School at Buffalo, New York. They have
become parents of a son, Robert Augustus, born May 12, 1918. Mr. Lane is a
democrat in his political views, an Elk in his fraternal relations and a
Presbyterian in his religious faith. He is ready and willing at all times to do
anything that will aid in the development of the great state of Arkansas and is
very optimistic about the future of the state.


Additional Comments:
Citation:
Centennial History of Arkansas
Volume II
Chicago-Little Rock: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company
1922


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