William F. May, Date of Birth, Date of Death

    

William F. May

American businessman

Date of Birth: 25-Oct-1915

Date of Death: 18-Sep-2011

Profession: businessperson, engineer

Nationality: United States

Zodiac Sign: Scorpio


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About William F. May

  • William Frederick May (October 25, 1915 – September 18, 2011) was an American chemical engineer, businessman and co-founder of the Film Society of Lincoln Center.May was born in Chicago in 1915 and raised in the suburb of Oak Park.
  • He graduated from Oak Park High School and earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Rochester in 1937.
  • He pursued graduate studies at both the University of Chicago and the Illinois Institute of Technology.In the 1930s, May joined DuPont as part of a research team which developed the first rust-proof paint.
  • He was hired by the American Can Company in 1940, based in a laboratory in Maywood, Illinois.
  • May became head of the American Can Company and shepherded the company through fifteen years of expansion and growth from 1965.
  • He spearheaded American Can Company's relocation of its corporate headquarters to Greenwich, Connecticut, in 1972.May was elected to the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts' board of directors in 1967.
  • He was tasked with establishing a new film department for Lincoln Center.
  • He worked as the program's chief fundraiser, while two other members of the committee handled artistic contributions, Richard Roud and Amos Vogel, both of whom founded the New York Film Festival.
  • However, Lincoln Center withdrew financial support from the committee in 1968 due to financial woes.
  • May searched for new financial donors.
  • In 1969, May and two Lincoln Center executives, Schuyler G.
  • Chapin and Martin E.
  • Segal, co-founded the Film Society of Lincoln Center.May retired from the American Can Company in 1980.
  • He served as the dean of what is now called the New York University Stern School of Business for four years.
  • He later became the chief executive of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, eventually becoming chairman emeritus in 2006.William May died on September 18, 2011, in Greenwich, Connecticut, where he resided since 1970, at the age of 95.
  • Before moving to Greenwich, he and his family had lived in nearby Chappaqua, New York.
  • He was survived by his wife, Kathleen; two daughters; four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

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