The Peninsula Press Club’s board of directors has decided not to accept the resignation of board member and co-founder John Kane, who recently suffered a heart attack. The board made its decision based on the fact that Kane is the immediate past president and therefore, according to the bylaws, an automatic member of the board. The refusal is also in hopes that Kane will soon be on the mend and on his way back to the board. The soonest a vacancy might have to filled is in December.

Kane is one of the club’s earliest and most faithful officers. He helped to found the club 48 years ago with fellow board member Jack Russell. Kane never wavered in his support of the Press Club which he joined as a sports writer for the San Mateo Times. He continued at the Redwood City Tribune and the Palo Alto Times. He then formed his own Kane and Associates public relations firm which represented clients from England to Silicon Valley to the Peninsula.

His particular interest is in fostering high school and college journalism scholarships. His chairmanship of the Herb Caen Scholarship Committee led dozens of journalism students to advance their media careers. A fine baseball player at the University of the Pacific, Kane was recently inducted into the Sequoia High School Sports Hall of Fame. He also has continued to serve on the committee for the San Mateo County Sports Hall of Fame.

After his heart attack, he was hospitalized at Kaiser’s Acute Care Center in San Leandro, and he is recuperating at the home of his son in Newark. Coincidentally, while at the San Leandro facility, Kane found himself a next-door neighbor of another PPC board member, Bill Workman, who has been undergoing therapy to overcome the effects of a stroke in December.
Bill’s wife Marla says she’s hoping to bring Bill home to their new apartment at Woodlake in San Mateo soon.