The following story first appeared in the Summer 2000 Glenmary Challenge.
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Former Farm Volunteer Takes On Insurance Industry
By Patricia Normile  

Attorney Steve Dane, a faithful supporter of Glenmary, routinely tells others how Glenmary has supported him in his life choices. He  recently received the “Extraordinary Service in the Public Interest Award” presented by Individuals and Organizations in Northwest Ohio.

Steve Dane, an Ohio attorney, is one example of the ripple effect of Glenmary in the lives of  former volunteers across decades and across the country. As a teenage volunteer at the Glenmary Farm in Vanceburg, Ky., in the mid 1970s, Steve stored away images from Appalachia that have continued to inspire his life and his work. 

He recalls, for example, seeing “a whole family living in a chicken coop with an outhouse.” Such images, coupled with his experiences as a Farm volunteer building houses for the poor, heightened his awareness of fair housing issues at an early age. 

Since the mid 1980s, Steve has devoted a large share of his legal career to social justice issues. In 1996 the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development recognized his efforts by presenting him the Fair Housing Award. He is considered a national expert in cases where individuals are denied mortgages in a discriminatory manner—a field where only a handful of U.S. attorneys have tried cases.

His investigative work helped bring to national attention the practice of “redlining.” That’s the drawing of an actual or figurative red line by the banking or insurance industries around areas of a community where mortgages or insurance are denied simply because of location. In most cases this meant African-American or Hispanic neighborhoods.

Steve’s efforts have forced the nation’s largest homeowner-insurance companies to pay substantial punitive and compensatory penalties. His work has also meant that these companies’ practices have now been brought into compliance with fair and just insurance policies.

In 1999 Ohio Lawyers Weekly named Steve Dane one of eight “Ohio Lawyers of the Year.” The reason cited was his work fighting insurance redlining.

His own parish—St. Rose in Perrysburg, Ohio—has also benefited from his lifelong passion for aiding the less fortunate. In 1987 Steve helped organize the St. Rose Peace and Justice Committee which has evolved into a powerful group working for peace and justice issues.

Steve gives Glenmary a lot of the credit for the direction his life has taken. “The priests and brothers of Glenmary epitomize what it means to be ‘disciples’ of Christ in this modern era,” he says of his experience with Glenmarians.

“Like Jesus, they live and work humbly, hand in hand with the poor,” he continues. “In an ambiguous world that is filled with too many religious charlatans, they provide authentic Christian role models.”

Steve’s life poses this challenge to all those he encounters: to “reflect more on if you are actually living the gospel.” He faced that challenge as a teenager at the Glenmary Farm; he has spent his life living the answer.

Patricia Normile is a freelance writer based in Cincinnati.