Malcolm McLane, 83, died Saturday, Feb. 2, 2008, at his home at Kendal retirement community in Hanover, NH. Born Oct. 3, 1924, in Manchester, McLane served on the Concord City Council for 20 years and as mayor of Concord NH from 1970 to 1976. He ran for governor in 1972 as an independent in the general election. Inspired by his grandfather, Gov. John R. McLane, he devoted his career in public service to improving the quality of life in New Hampshire.
A 1942 graduate of St. Paul’s School, McLane served as an officer in the Air Force in World War II. He flew 73 missions before he was shot down in a dogfight over Luxembourg during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944. McLane spent the remainder of the war in Stalagluft I, a prisoner of war camp run by the German air force. The Germans abandoned the camp, which was liberated by Soviet forces May 1, 1945. McLane returned to New Hampshire a decorated war hero and spent the summer of 1945 recuperating at his family’s home on Newfound Lake.
After the war, McLane graduated from Dartmouth with the Class of 1946. In 1948, he married Susan Neidlinger of Hanover and moved to Oxford, England, where he was a Rhodes scholar. McLane graduated from Harvard Law School in 1952. He then moved to Concord with his young family and began practicing law at Orr and Reno.
An avid skier with a lifelong devotion to the sport, McLane was captain of the Dartmouth College Ski Team and served as an international alpine ski official at the 1960 Olympics in Squaw Valley California and numerous World Cup competitions. He was inducted into the Ski Hall of Fame in Ishpeming, Mich. In 1957, he joined Mack Beal and Olympic skiers George Macomber and Brooks Dodge in founding Wildcat Mountain Ski Area in Pinkham Notch. McLane served on the board for 30 years and as president of Wildcat.
Mal worked at Greenleaf hut in the 1946 season and held one of the fastest packing records on the Bridle Path.