William F. May, American film society founder (Film Society of Lincoln Center), died from heart failure at 95.

William Frederick May  was an American chemical engineer, businessman and co-founder of the Film Society of Lincoln Center.^[1][2]

(October 25, 1915 – September 18, 2011)

May was born in Chicago in 1915 and raised in the suburb of Oak Park.^[2] He graduated from Oak Park High School and earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Rochester in 1937.^[1] He pursued graduate studies at both the University of Chicago and the Illinois Institute of Technology.^[1]
In the 1930s, May joined DuPont as part of a research team which developed the first rust-proof paint.^[1][2] He was hired by the American Can Company in 1940, based in a laboratory in Maywood, Illinois.^[2] May became head of the American Can Company and shepherded the company through fifteen years of expansion and growth from 1965.^[1] He spearheaded American Can Company's relocation of its corporate headquarters to Greenwich, Connecticut, in 1972.^[2]
May was elected to the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts' board of directors in 1967.^[1] He was tasked with establishing a new film department for Lincoln Center.^[1] 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.^[1] However, Lincoln Center withdrew financial support from the committee in 1968 due to financial woes.^[1] 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.^[1]
May retired from the American Can Company in 1980.^[2] He served as the dean of what is now called the New York University Stern School of Business for four years.^[1][2] He later became the chief executive of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, eventually becoming chairman emeritus in 2006.^[2]
William May died on September 18, 2011, in Greenwich, Connecticut, where he resided since 1970, at the age of 95.^[1] Before moving to Greenwich, he and his family had lived in nearby Chappaqua, New York.^[2] He was survived by his, Kathleen; two daughetrs; four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.^[2]


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