Winsome Lillian Baron Gane

1927- 2017

Winsome Baron Gane, a pianist and organist, taught piano wherever her husband served as a minister and teacher in higher education in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.  She was born in New Zealand, on November 25, 1927, and raised in Sydney, Australia, one of two children and the only daughter of Harold John and Winifred Butler Baron, pioneers in the SDA work in Australia. She met Erwin R. Gane, a native of Melbourne, while serving as a pianist and organist in the SDA church in Sydney.

After they married on July 1, 1953, following an 18-month courtship, he continued to teach at Strathfield High School while completing a B.A. in 1955 at Avondale College. They eventually moved to Michigan, where he completed degrees in theology at Andrew University in 1963, 1967, and 1968. He began teaching at Union College in Nebraska in 1964 and pursued a doctorate at the University of Nebraska. He accepted a position at Pacific Union College in 1974 and completed his Ph.D. in 1977.

They eventually moved to New Jersey and then to Maryland, where Erwin served for several years at the General Conference, becoming known for his work with the Adult Sabbath School Lesson Quarterly and as host and editor of a series of videos related to the Sabbath School Lessons.

While they were living in New Jersey, she taught music at the Meadow View School in Chesterfield, where she established a highly regarded handbell choir that performed frequently and toured in the East Puerto Rican Conference. After he retired in 1995, they returned to Angwin, California, where she retired from teaching.

They were living in Loveland, Colorado, when she died on April 30, 2017, at age 89.  She was survived by her husband, Erwin; two sons, Roy and Calvin and their wives; and grandchildren.

ds/2018

Sources: Information obtained from Erwin R. Gane by Naomi Jungling Sica and forwarded to me, 2017; Obituary for Winsome Gane, Adventist Record, 6 May, 2017; Obituary for Harold and Winifred Baron, Australasian Record, 4 September 1982,14; Erwin, education, AR, 28 February 1955, 8; 24 June 1962,16; 24 July 1972, 1; Pacific Union Recorder, 16 September 1974, 8; AR, 3 January 1977, 16; Adventist Review, 17 February 1994, 19; Columbia Union Visitor (Meadow View), 1 March 1984, 7; 1 April 1985, 13; 15 June 1984, 8.