Many Wheaton College couples have a story that begins at HoneyRock and leads to a wedding after graduation. But only Bob ’72 and Patty Carlson Lane ’72, R.N. ’69 have a story that also involves leading one of America’s most iconic brands to new global heights while supporting symphony orchestras and aiding urban and atrisk children. 

“We’ve been blessed by the Lord to tackle life arm-in-arm together,” says Bob. 

Patty and Bob, grateful for so many years of engagement in the lives of their children and grandchildren, have frequently read aloud the Shema prayer of Deuteronomy 6:4-9 as they have aimed to implement its priorities. 

Over 28 of their years together, Bob was an employee of John Deere, an American company famous around the globe for excellent agricultural equipment. Patty has blended the role of board member and front-line volunteer in serving symphonies and at-risk students. Bob and Patty have both sought to echo God’s pledge in Genesis that, through Abraham and his descendants, “all peoples on earth will be blessed.” 

The Lanes’ journey together began during resident assistant training at HoneyRock. The day before they met, Patty laughed incredulously as Bob gave a humorous mock lecture on playing Capture the Flag. The next morning, Bob invited Patty to canoe with him to Cranberry Island. 

They returned to the island on their honeymoon exactly one year later. 

Among their fond memories of Wheaton, Patty recalls a classical music course by Dr. Alton Cronk HON. 

“He would describe a symphony and then play the record, exuding pure joy as he listened,” she says. “He imparted that love of music to me.” 

Bob recalls philosophy lectures on epistemology by Dr. Arthur Holmes ’50, M.A. ’52. 

“His perspectival lens on how ‘all truth is God’s truth’ oriented me, particularly later as I worked within so many different countries,” says Bob. “As it became a lens to the complex world for me, I would often recall his accented quotation of Scripture that ‘now we see through a glass darkly.’” 

After graduation, Bob went to the University of Chicago for a master’s in business administration. Then he worked as a banker for eight years. One of his major clients: John Deere. 

Working in London before moving to Germany in 1980, Bob struck up a friendship with theologian John Stott. Bob wanted to talk with him about business as a Christian vocation. 

“Stressing the breadth of God’s holistic mission, Stott prayed that the words ‘all peoples on earth’ would be written on my heart,” says Bob. “For me these words from Genesis 12:1-4, which Stott taught as ‘the most unifying text in the whole Bible,’ became a beacon for cultural engagement around the world.” 

Bob eventually combined Holmes’ “all truth is God’s truth” and Stott’s emphasis on “all peoples on earth,” with the great poem from Colossians 1:15-20, read at their wedding, celebrating God’s pleasure in reconciling “all things” through Christ. 

“The high calling of business leadership —serving humankind well—reflects and serves God,” Bob says. “Offering genuinely valuable products, well designed and produced, contributes to human flourishing and, thus, to God’s glory.”

Bob saw this potential in John Deere, which offered him a job in 1982. He rose through the global operating ranks and retired after 28 years of service, including nine years as chairman and CEO. 

“I was privileged to make a mark on the company, especially strengthening its worldwide capabilities to sustainably serve customers, employees, and investors,” says Bob. “Undergirding my work was a worldview which had bubbled up from the complexities of those profoundly simple ‘all’ phrases.” 

As his successor, Samuel Allen, noted at Bob’s retirement reception: “Above all, Bob will be remembered for his insistence on integrity in all things, always telling us that how results are achieved is as important as the results themselves.” 

Patty currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, on the University of Chicago Charter School Governing Board where she also volunteers in a low-income urban school on a weekly basis, and on the vestry of St. Chrysostom’s Episcopal Church. Before moving to Chicago, she served on the board of the Quad City Symphony Orchestra and was president of the board of Arrowhead Ranch, a social services agency for adolescents ordered by juvenile courts for one year of education and counseling. 

“Arrowhead Ranch is an excellent organization, and the teachers and counselors give great effort to help students get back on the right track,” Patty says. 

Patty witnessed this firsthand as a volunteer at Arrowhead. Now she does the same in a classroom on the South Side of Chicago. 

“Volunteering every week allows me to meet students and teachers and understand better their problems and joys,” says Patty. “I have an appreciation for the challenges the teachers face and the tremendous drive, emotion, and work they put into helping the students. As a board member able to understand issues from a different perspective, I enjoy working on the long-term direction of the schools.” 

For Bob’s part, a 2008 profile in Fortune magazine noted: 

“Since [Lane] became CEO in August 2000, the overall stock market has been flat, but Deere shares have quintupled. As befits a man who leads a company based in the heart of the heartland … Lane favors an understated Midwestern sensibility. But he is, in fact, one of America’s top-performing CEOs.” 

Bob was conferred “The Order of Lincoln” laureate award in the area of Business & Industry, the State of Illinois’ highest honor, by Governor Pat Quinn and the Lincoln Academy of Illinois in 2013. His citation concluded: 

“He was famous within the company for his ability to greet hundreds of Deere employees by name. Generosity of spirit, kindness toward others, and unassuming friendliness were qualities that came deep within him. The humanizing influence of his courtesy and kindness is not an easy thing to measure. But for many of Deere’s 50,000 employees who experienced it first-hand, it was hard to forget.”