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Fall 2002

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Alumni get new leader
"Better off for your being here"

Faye Wolfe




	JESS KANE: Coming to UMass was an eye-opening experience.

It’s not hard to imagine UMass Alumni Association president Jess Kane ’70 as a UMass freshman. In conversation, he still has the energy and enthusiasm one might expect from someone half his age. He puts these qualities to good use in motivating members, meeting with donors and participating in the association’s many activities.

A self-described "poor boy from Chelsea, Mass.," Kane says coming to UMass was "an eye-opening experience.

"Back then, it was a big deal to go to college. I was the first of my family to go. Coming to Amherst and seeing the serenity, the beauty, of the bucolic setting… it was very different from the ‘mean streets’ of Chelsea."

Beyond that, he says, "UMass exposed me to so many different types of people, it expanded my horizons. I had come from a fairly cloistered environment, and I learned that people are people."

A graduate of Boston College High, Kane came to college planning to become a dentist. His father, "a huge influence" in his life, had steered him toward science "as the way of the future," and a career in dentistry seemed a way to combine science with his desire to work with people. "I wasn’t sure I was going to get into dental school," he remembers, but his UMass education "stacked up very well" against other collegiate programs: "I got into the greatest dental school in the world, in my opinion, Tufts University."

Outside the classroom, Kane, a sports lover, played rugby, coached by "Doc" Lawrence, who recently retired from the engineering department. A high point was "playing Her Majesty’s Navy rugby team in the Bahamas as seniors. We lost by about 60 points," he admits with a laugh, but the event was still a kick, so to speak.

An even higher point was meeting Andy Segal ’70, who became his wife. "I was the dishwasher at her sorority. I like to say, ‘the pay wasn’t good, but the fringe benefits were tremendous.’" The Kanes just celebrated their 30th anniversary.

As a member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity, Kane made friendships still going strong today. "We meet on the Cape every summer for a golf tournament, and this year, there were 32 of us from SPE." Friends from college include Bob Mahoney ’70, a UMass trustee; Bob Goodhue ’70, ’80G, a former president of the alumni association; and Marty Jacobson ’68, a generous donor to UMass athletics. Back then, he humorously notes, their potential was not yet realized. "At that time, you could have fooled us!" More seriously, he adds, "So much of what you ultimately become is in your heart; you can’t measure those things." He values UMass in part because it gives so many the knowledge they need to succeed.

"What is success?" Kane asks. "Why are we here? To me, the answer lies in how many people are better off for your being here." Kane credits his family with "instilling necessary values" in him, and UMass with giving him, "one, information, and two, a social conscience. You’ve got to have a social conscience."

Kane’s conscience keeps him busy. Aside from his UMass involvement (through the Alumni Association Board of Directors, the Ambassadors’ Network and the Alumni Admissions Council) Kane is also active on behalf of Tufts, where he earned his D.M.D. In 1988, he co-founded Project Stretch, which sends volunteer dentists, hygienists, assistants and others to places around the world to provide free dental treatment and education to poor children. Kane has gone on many of the trips.

"In Nicaragua, we stayed with the Sandinistas in a rectory. In Alaska, with the Inuit, we stayed in a hospital; in Lithuania, in a museum and in the Amazon rain forest, we stayed in hammocks!" Kane notes, "I really do get to see the world," although hardly as a typical tourist.

Then there’s his work as an orthodontist, a consultant and an assistant clinical professor at the Tufts dental school. Did we mention he has two children, Jamie ’00 and Lauren? So what does he do in his free time? "I sleep," he says, with a big laugh.

His readiness to laugh notwithstanding, Kane takes his UMass responsibilities seriously. "I have a tremendous love of the university and feel a tremendous debt of gratitude when I think about where I came from and where I am now."

What he likes best is "meeting people, interacting with them." He pauses, then says with disarming candor, "When someone says ‘I love people,’ you have to think they’re either lying or stupid. But it’s true, I get such a kick out of meeting people, thinking about what makes them tick. And the people I meet are fascinating."

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