Morton David May (25 March 1914 – 13 April 1983) (known as Buster to his friends and colleagues) was an American philanthropist and art collector. He was also at various times director, chairman of the board, and chief executive officer of the May Department Stores Company.
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Biography
May was born to a Jewish family, the son of Sarah (née Hirsch) and Morton J. May. He was the grandson of David May, who started the family in merchandising from a canvas-roofed makeshift shop, in the then-populous city of Leadville, Colorado, during a gold strike in 1877. He soon came to the conclusion that there was no future there, and moved his business to Denver, Colorado. The whole May family would move out to St. Louis, Missouri in 1905. He opened a store there and later bought out the William Barr Dry Goods Co., merging it with the Famous Shoe & Clothing Co. — and Famous-Barr was created. Morton J. May, David May's son, took over the family enterprise, and ran it successfully for many years during Morton D. May's childhood.
Morton D. May attended St. Louis's Country Day school, and then Dartmouth College.
Career
Despite his privileged position as heir to May Department Stores fortune, May started out his career with a summer position in the complaints department. After that he held nearly every position from janitor to chairman of the board. In 1951 he was elected president of the corporation, a position which he held until 1967. Then he was chairman of the board until 1972. He was also chief executive officer from 1957 to 1968. He retired from the corporation's board of directors in 1982 and was elected director emeritus.
Art collection
May became interested in collecting art through his uncle by marriage Samuel Abraham Marx in the early 1940s but was interrupted by World War II. When the war was over he traveled to galleries in New York and began investigating the paintings of American artists and Cubists, but soon his interests drifted elsewhere. He was well known for not being a fashionable collector.
When his contemporaries were buying School of Paris pictures, May was buying tough German Expressionist pictures that turned out to be masterpieces.
So much of what makes art collectable, other than the artist's ability is fashion and promotion. Art museum curators are a thing unto themselves. If an artist is out of the grouping of what they (curators) think is good, they won't go along. Fashion in art has been set for the past twenty-five years by the Metropolitan Museum in New York City.
In general May focused his collection in three areas, German Expressionism, Mesoamerica, and the indigenous arts of various cultures around the globe, including primarily art from Oceania, Africa, and other Pre-Columbian art that was not specifically from Mesoamerica. In these areas his goal was comprehensiveness. Because he bought so extensively, he sometimes made mistakes, which he famously laughed off, making no effort to conceal them. He even displayed them in his office in the Railway Exchange Building along with his fishing trophies and family photographs.
He was introduced to art by his parents when he was in his early teens. They traveled to Europe and toured various museums, trips which he later characterized as 'forced marches'. He did not learn to appreciate art until he was at Dartmouth where he took a course in modern art and architecture.
In the 1930s May visited the home in Chicago of the architect Samuel Marx, to whom his aunt was married, and from whom he would later commission a house. When interviewed in 1980, he spoke of the visit:
I was there discussing the plans (for the house), They (the Marxes) owned wonderful art, including a magnificent collection of the work of the School of Paris artists. But what really stunned me was not the French art but some Mexican figures I learned were from the west coast of Mexico, between 1,600 and 1,900 years old. I knew then and there that I wanted to own similar objects.
Photography
In 1934, during his studies at Dartmouth, he had a rare opportunity to travel to Russia with the free-lance photographer, Julien Bryan. The next year, he made a six-month trip through Russia, Manchuria, and Japan, as Bryan's assistant, filming for The March of Time series Today eight of his photographs are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and many are in the collection of the Saint Louis Art Museum.
Other philanthropy
When May returned from the service, he found the ten-year-old plans for the Gateway Arch National Park languishing. He joined the effort for the riverfront memorial, and in 1959 was made president of what was then known as the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Association. He was instrumental in the construction of the Gateway Arch.
May headed fund drives for the Pius XII memorial Library at St. Louis University, and the development of a new Jewish Community Centers Association campus in St. Louis County. He was on the board of trustees of Washington University in St. Louis, the boards of the United Fund, the Regional Commerce and Growth Association, and Civic Progress Inc. He was commissioner for the Art Museum and a member of Friends of Laumeier Sculpture Park. He was chairman of the board of the St. Louis Symphony for eight years. He used his influence at the National Park Service, (the director and he were old fishing buddies, his friendship with the man had also been instrumental in getting the Arch completed) to get funding for the symphony to play at the Arch. His dedication to music in St. Louis did not end with the symphony. He also saved the Dance Concert Society from bankruptcy.
In the early 1960s, May organized the Arts and Education Council in St. Louis because the United Way decided to stop funding cultural organizations to concentrate on health and welfare agencies.
The Boy Scouts of America were always important to him. He was instrumental in the acquisition and development of the St. Louis Council's Beaumont Reservation near Eureka, Missouri and the S-F Scout Ranch near Knob Lick, MO. He was also a member of the Boy Scout National Executive Board.
Awards and honors
President Richard Nixon offered him the chairmanship of the National Council on the Arts, an advisory committee to the National Endowment for the Arts. He turned it down so that he could stay in St. Louis.
He was awarded the Levee Stone for his efforts on behalf of downtown Saint Louis, and Washington University's William Greenleaf Eliot Society Award. For his work on behalf of the Boy Scouts, he was given two of their top awards, the Silver Antelope Award and the Silver Beaver. He was also given honorary degrees at Webster University, University of Missouri–St. Louis, and Drury University. In 1959, the St. Louis Globe-Democrat unanimously chose him as Man of the Year.
Personal life
He was married to Margie May; they had three sons. In 1982, he married Lucia Piaskowiak, with whom he had one daughter.