Matthew Evans Lane, 35, of Gunnison, Colorado, died of a heart attack on May 10, 2025, while rafting Idaho’s Selway River, his favorite place on earth.
Known as Matt to most (among other nicknames not fit to print), he was born in Kansas City, Missouri, to Sheila Evans and Jonathan Lane, on October 17, 1989. He grew up in Prairie Village, Kansas, discovered his love of the water as a camper at Camp Chippewa in Minnesota where he canoed the Boundary Waters, and graduated from Shawnee Mission East High School in 2008. A prankster, musician, outdoorsman, chef, mountain biker and skateboarder, athlete, and artful vulgarian, Matt loved pissing people off yet always managed to make more friends than enemies.
Matt graduated from Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington in 2012, where he turned his passion for the outdoors into a degree in environmental science and completed a life-changing NOLS course, spending a summer canoeing in the Amazon. He lived in Washington for several years after graduation, working as a river guide, in food service and agriculture, and playing in bands. Always a good eater, mashed-potato maker, and cookie baker, Matt became an excellent cook and encyclopedia of food techniques and ingredients during his time in the Pacific Northwest.
Matt moved to Gunnison in 2017 and found a wonderful community of friends, including his girlfriend, Kayla Harwood-Ponzini. He tended bar, painted houses, and worked as a river guide, but more than anything, he was a musician and an adventurer, a talented guitarist, mountain man, and pizza aficionado who was reliably the funniest person in the room.
Matt had the toughest exterior but the tenderest center. He was goofy and caring, obnoxious and protective, crude and charming and wise beyond his years. Matt never met a raunchy joke he couldn’t improve upon or a belch he couldn’t dwarf. He loved his people fiercely and unflinchingly and would always show up for a friend in need.
Matt is survived by so many loved ones it would be impossible to name them all. He was the beloved youngest child of Sheila Evans and Jonathan Lane, stepson to Robert Cort, little brother to Ruth and Nathan Evans Lane, brother-in-law to William McClain, uncle to Vivian and Diana, partner to Kayla, nephew, cousin, and friend. He is preceded in death by the greatest dog to ever live, Nellie Kay.
Memorials to celebrate Matt’s too short yet abundant life will be held at the Overland Park Arboretum, LongHouse Visitor Center, 9209 W. 179th Street, Bucyrus, KS 66013, on Monday, May 26, at 1 PM and at River Park Pavilion, 800 E. Main Street, Buena Vista, CO 81211, on Saturday, May 31, at 11:30 AM. All are welcome.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations to the Seva Foundation (www.seva.org), a nonprofit that works with local communities around the world to develop self-sustaining programs that preserve and restore sight, or that you honor Matt’s memory by spending a beautiful day outdoors with your loved ones.
Obituary published by Flintoft’s Funeral Home & Crematory.
