Jane Milner Schnell
CIA Training Officer, Author, and Record-Breaking Cyclist Supports College With Generous Bequest
When Jane Milner Schnell ’52 retired from her career as a training and intelligence officer for the CIA, she had no plans to sit still. She climbed aboard a touring bike and set out on a one-year journey away from schedules, regulations and responsibilities. “Freedom was a privilege,” she later wrote, “a gold watch I gave myself, a retirement present from me to me.” In the 1980s, Schnell rode 12,000 miles through 31 states over 13 months and became the oldest and only woman known to have completed a U.S.A perimeter bicycle trip. Afterwards, she wrote her first book, Changing Gears. Later, she completed four more books about her bike adventures in Georgia, Europe, and on a handicapped, cycling tour of Siberia and Mongolia.
In the 1990s, Schnell took over ownership of the Hill Crest Inn, an historic bed and breakfast in Clayton, Georgia that she purchased, renovated, and restored, while caring for her mother, Ruth McCullough Schnell ’28.
She moved to Richmond, Virginia in 2015, with her dog, Sox, and renewed her passion for oil painting. She recently passed away on Feb. 24.
A committed alumna, Schnell helped the Class of 1952 raise the largest Reunion gift ever from a 60th Reunion class. She also created the OM Scholarship Fund to memorialize The Old Maid, the first humor magazine published by a women’s college in the United States. It began at R-MWC in 1926. Schnell continued her support of the College after death through a generous bequest.