Clarkson Mourns Mary Plane HD ’85
Mary Moore Plane (January 31, 1927-September 14, 2023), wife of Clarkson University President Emeritus Robert A. Plane (1928-2018), passed away at age 96 after a short illness. A resident of La Vida Llena Retirement Community in Albuquerque since 2012, Mary lived a full and active life of unflagging service. She was an innovator, a mentor to other women, an entrepreneur, and a steadfast contributor to the many communities she touched, including Cornell University (Ithaca, New York) and Clarkson University (Potsdam, New York). She co-founded and ran Plane’s Cayuga Vineyards in 1972 with her husband, an associated winery of the same name in 1980, and individually conceived and, in 1983, co-founded the Cayuga Wine Trail of the Finger Lakes Region, joining Plane’s winery with four other wineries to form a thriving association to promote tourism in the region.
Mary was the youngest child born to Thomas Turner Moore and his wife, Lola Morton Moore, of Charleston, Illinois. Her dad was a grocer, and some of her earliest and most enduring childhood memories centered on the family store. She learned to drive at age 11, mostly so she could help with home deliveries of groceries. Mary’s mother was herself a pioneer, having graduated Warrensburg Teacher’s College in central Missouri and then completing her BA in education at Columbia University in New York City, before studying at Cornell University’s Department of Domestic Science (Home Economics) and returning to the Midwest to teach at the institution now known as Eastern Illinois University in Charleston.
Mary graduated from Cottey College (Nevada, Missouri) in 1946, remaining a very active alumna. She completed her BA at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, in 1947. Mary earned a Master’s degree at Syracuse University in Student Personnel Administration, and, after serving briefly as a residence hall director at the University of Minnesota, she moved to Ithaca, New York in 1950. There she took up a position as Program Director in the Willard Straight Hall Student Union at Cornell University.
In 1963 Mary wed Robert A. (Bob) Plane, a professor of chemistry and later Provost at Cornell. Mary gained two step-children, then very young, and quickly added two more children to the family.
Mary moved to Potsdam, New York in 1974, when Bob took the position of President of Clarkson University. Long interested in K-12 education, Mary advocated for the formation of the Clarkson School, a combined 12th grade/Freshman year program. For this, and other service, in 1985 Clarkson conferred on Mary an honorary Ph.D.
During their time at Clarkson, Mary and Bob were simultaneously developing a farm winery, Plane’s Cayuga Vineyards, near Ovid, in the state’s Finger Lakes region. Mary attended New York State Agricultural Extension classes to learn the practical aspects of planting and growing grapes; usually she was the only female student. She and her husband were among the first winery owners to grow vinifera grapes commercially in Upstate New York, and they participated in research at Cornell University’s Agricultural Experiment Station (Geneva, NY) to develop varieties that might tolerate the region’s cold winters better than pure European varietals.
Mary held primary responsibility for vineyard operations and marketing. As the first female vineyard and farm winery owner/manager in the region, she mentored other businesses, including, especially women managers, providing invaluable support across the industry. In 1983, she pioneered the creation of the Cayuga Wine Trail, the first wine trail in the nation.
Upon Bob’s retirement in 1995, the decision was made to sell the vineyard/winery and relocate to Albuquerque, New Mexico. There Mary and Bob began active lives as volunteers. In 2012, they moved to the La Vida Llena Retirement community. There, Mary devoted herself to activities that helped residents remain engaged with the community. After Bob’s death in 2018,Mary continued to volunteer, even after she lost most of her eyesight.
Mary is survived by her four children: David (Katharine Jacobs), Martha (Javier Vela), Ann Marie (Adam Liff), and Jennifer; nine grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren; she was preceded in death by her husband of 55years (Robert), her beloved friend, Mary Ann Coghill, and two of her grandchildren. A memorial service will be held at La Vida Llena Life Plan Community in Albuquerque at 2:00 pm on December 9, 2023.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to: The Full Life Foundation, 10501 Lagrima de Oro Rd, NE, Ste 361, Albuquerque, NM 87111 https://www.lavidallena.com/about/foundation/ ; or Roadrunner Food Bank, 5840 Office Blvd, NE, Albuquerque, NM 87109: https://www.rrfb.org/give/give-funds/ . A family-only interment of ashes will be held at the Mound Cemetery in Charleston, Illinois, in spring 2024.
