William "Lane" McCollum passed away on December 29, 2025 at Huntsville Hospital at 81 years old.

Lane was born an engineer in Tuscumbia, AL on August 18, 1944 to Ralph and Polly McCollum, the middle child between Ralph (Tom) and Larry. He was baptized in the Church of Christ. With a knack for technology from the start, he began his journey in his parent's backyard shack with his ham radio and progressed to Naval destroyer radios during Vietnam. He solidified his engineer status with a formal Mechanical Engineering degree from the University of Alabama in 1968.

Lane married Sherry McCollum on June 10th of 1972, his father's birthday. Lane wore a suit that day—momentarily putting aside his beloved denim shirts with one pocket. It was a love story that fulfilled the vow, "until death do we part." He wrote poetry only for Sherry and they were inseparable partners in parenthood, business, and building a life together. They built three houses together, ran multiple businesses aside from his day job, and raised one daughter, Jennifer.

Lane loved tinkering and loved computers. The passion that began with amateur radio as a teen carried him through incredible eras in his life: invention of the personal computer, the Information Superhighway, the smartphone, crypto, and now AI. He embraced it all with a sharp-eyed intelligence, passion, and competence that shone to the very end—reading, researching and looking at the world with wonder. An unfinished computer sits on his desk, something he was rebuilding for his longtime friend and owner of the Scottsboro Gun & Pawn Shop, Robert Shook. In his career, he worked at nuclear plants and later for the US Army. Lane had several career highlights with coworkers he cared for deeply – construction engineering (instrumentation) for Brown's Ferry and Bellefonte Nuclear Plants, developing the unmanned Huey (QUH-1) prototype for the Targets Management Office, and working in the Unmanned Ground Vehicle Systems Joint Project Office for the Army. Of all of his accomplishments, he was most proud of his work with DOK-ING in Croatia.

As Deputy Program Manager in Unmanned Ground, Lane oversaw the development of robotic mine flail from a test prototype being run remotely by a repurposed game controller into an Army Program of Record as the M160, originally the DOK-ING MV-4. His work saved lives overseas, being used in Afghanistan for nearly a decade in route clearance operations, and his partnership with Slavko Majetić brought him great joy. It was an international friendship built on mutual respect and a deep commitment to saving lives.

His humor and charm were second to none. He tucked Sherry in every night and left post-it love notes hidden all over the house. When he realized his daughter had an old-fashioned answering machine on her desk at work and a penchant for coming in later than when he liked to call, he'd leave singsong messages for her coworkers. He used his cell phone as it was intended—ridiculous selfies. He loved shenanigans and jokes, using his intelligence and wit to bring out the best in others. He, however, hated using actual words in the subject lines of his emails and thought nothing of blaming loud public farts on the nearest family member.

Lane McCollum is survived by his wife, Sherry, daughter, Jennifer, and son-in-law Matthew McDougal. He also leaves behind his older brother Tom, with whom he not only talked daily, but together they also happily managed to get into the maximum amount of trouble possible for 80 year-olds, and his younger brother Larry, the third brother and partner in tomfoolery, who once sent Lane his stinky worn shoes as a thank you for buying them for him.

Though there will be no services, we will be spreading ashes in Tuscumbia Spring Park per his request where he and his brothers made a lot of memories and only a little trouble.

In his honor, please consider donating to Alzheimer's Research or support your local animal charity. Lane was fortunate. He was able to have several additional, phenomenal years thanks to advances in Alzheimer's research. And if you want to give the gift of kindness, Lane would love it if you did something nice with intention for someone—open a door, help a stranger, or give grace (especially in traffic).

He was loved more than anyone could ever be.

Berryhill Funeral Home assisted the family.