ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (WHCU) – An architect of culture and economics in the Finger Lakes has passed away.
Mary Plane, the former program director of Cornell’s Willard Straight Hall student union, died earlier this month in Albuquerque after a brief illness.
Plane, along with her husband, Robert, a former professor of chemistry and Provost at Cornell, opened Plane’s Cayuga Vineyards in Ovid in 1972.
The pair both participated in research at Cornell Agri-Tech in Geneva to develop varieties of grapes that tolerate colder winters.
In 1983, Plane conceived and co-founded the Finger Lakes Wine Trail, which was the first wine trail in the country.
Mary Plane was 96 years old.
