[2] John Michael Lane was born on February 14, 1936, in Boston, Massachusetts, to Eileen O'Connor and Alfred Baker Lewis.

His mother was on the national board of the YWCA and a director of Planned Parenthood, and his father was a pro bono lawyer for the early NAACP and later a treasurer of the organization.

[2] Lane started his career as an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Epidemic Intelligence Service in 1963.

[3] During this time, he traveled to countries in Africa and south-east Asia, including Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and Indonesia, to undertake vaccination campaigns and combat outbreaks of the disease.

[2][4] Following his role with the Smallpox Eradication program, Lane stayed with the CDC through 1987 as a director of the Center for Prevention Services.