May, Henry Farnham, 1915-2012

Biography

Henry Farnham May was born in Denver, Colorado on March 27, 1915, the son of Henry F. and May (Rickard) May. He received an A.B. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1937, with his M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard in 1938 and 1947. May worked as an instructor of history at Lawrence College from 1941 to 1942 and from 1942 to 1945, served as a lieutenant (j.g.) in the United States Navy Reserve. He returned to his teaching career as an assistant professor, and then associate professor, at Scripps College from 1947 to 1949. He was a visiting associate professor at Bowdoin College from 1950 to 1951.

May became a member of the faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1952 and was made professor in 1956. From 1963 to 1980, he served as the Margaret Byrne Professor of American History and was made an emeritus professor in 1980. May served as chairman of the history department from 1964-1966 and also held many temporary assignments during his career, including Faculty Research Lecturer in 1980. He was a summer teacher at the Salzburg Seminar of American Studies and at the University of Minnesota. May was Fulbright lecturer at the Belgian Universities from 1959-1960, Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions at Cambridge University from 1971-1972, and visiting professor at the University of Leuven, Belgium, in 1980.

May is the author of Protestant Churches and Industrial America (1949), The End of American Innocence (1959), A Synopsis of American History (with C. G. Sellers, 1963), The Enlightenment in America (1976), Ideas, Faiths, and Feelings (1983), Coming to Terms (1987), The Divided Heart (1991), and Three Faces of Berkeley (1993), as well as numerous articles.

Throughout his career, Henry May was honored with numerous awards, including the Berkeley Citation (1980), the Beveridge Prize (1977) from the American History Association, and the Merle Curti Prize (1976) from the Organization of American Historians. In 1996, the same organization awarded him its annual citation for Distinguished Service. May has served as Fellow on the Social Science Research Council (1946-1947 and 1963-1964), on the American Council of Learned Societies (1963-1964), and as a Senior Fellow of the National Endowment for Humanities (1974-1975). He is a member of the American Historical Association, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Henry May married Jean Louise Terrace on June 18, 1941 and has two children, Hildy May and Ann Rickard May. He lives with his wife in Kensington, California.

From the guide to the Henry F. May Papers, 1940-1999, (The Bancroft Library)