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Michael M. May, a renowned physicist and scientific adviser who served as the director of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory during a critical time in the Vietnam War era, died last month at his home in San Francisco at 100 years old.
A longtime Pleasanton resident and World War II veteran who worked at Stanford University after his retirement from Livermore, May left a lasting legacy on the lab and the United States “from advancing weapon design and supercomputing to shaping strategic policy on arms control and nonproliferation”, according to LLNL officials.
“Mike May was a rare combination: a physicist with technical brilliance, a leader with vision, and a strategist with a deep commitment to peace and stability,” current LLNL Director Kim Budil said in a statement. “He helped steer the Lab through a pivotal era and was a cornerstone in shaping today’s scientific contributions to national and international security.”
May was also remembered for how well he “balanced these tremendous career accomplishments with a fulfilling family life”, according to an obituary the family shared with the Pleasanton Weekly. He and his late wife Mary raised their four children primarily in the Tri-Valley.
“Dr. May was kind, generous, thoughtful, and bright. He enjoyed great food and coffee, reading scientific papers, travel, literature, poetry, and spending time with his loved ones. Both spiritual and religious, he practiced Christianity and Zen Buddhism,” the obituary stated. “He was immensely proud of his family … He was a loving and devoted husband, father and grandfather.”
Born in Marseille, France, on Dec. 23, 1925, May grew up in and near Paris and later in Hanoi, Vietnam (then French Indochina) for two years before his family moved to Walla Walla, Wash. in 1940. His father had a noted career in tropical medicine, and his mother – who was the granddaughter of French senator and human rights advocate Ludovic Trarieux – worked a variety of jobs in her life, including as a machinist during World War II.
Overcoming polio in his youth, May graduated from high school at 15 years old and earned degrees in math and physics from Whitman College at 18, according to his obituary. He was drafted in the U.S. Army after college, serving in 1944 and 1945 in the 101st Airborne Division and also involved in testing weapons.
May went on to complete his Ph.D. in theoretical physics at the University of California at Berkeley and then became one of the early hires at the national lab in Livermore in 1952 – known as the UC Radiation Laboratory.
“The first guy I met said, ‘I suppose you know we’re working on nuclear weapons?’ My jaw dropped,” May said in an interview recalled in LLNL’s remembrance post after his death. “It was a startup — that kind of spirit.”
His first decade-plus at the lab included work on theoretical calculations for thermonuclear weapons, high-speed computing for physics modeling and nuclear design.
May was promoted to lab director in October 1965, leading the facility of more than 5,600 employees during a critical time of weapons research as well as its scientific expansion into areas including energy, computing and fusion research, according to LLNL.
“In 1971, just before stepping down as director, May initiated the consolidation of the Lab’s various laser research projects, laying the foundation for what would become LLNL’s world-leading laser program,” lab officials said. “He was also an early advocate for internally funded research, helping set the stage for programs that would later support scientific innovation across disciplines.”
May spent a year as a visiting fellow at Princeton University and then returned to LLNL as its first associate director at large, a position he held until retiring in 1988. He also advised Secretaries of Defense James Schlesinger, Harold Brown and Caspar Weinberger.
In retirement, May joined Stanford University as a senior fellow, and he remained an engaged voice in science and policy into his 90s, according to LLNL.
May moved to The Sequoias San Francisco in 2013, where he enjoyed an active life for more than a decade, according to his family. He died peacefully at his home there on May 17 at the age of 100.
He was preceded in death by his wife of 55 years, Mary May (2007). He is survived by his children Richard May, Margaret May, Barbara Duffy and John May and their families, including eight grandchildren and one great-grandchild, as well as his companion Gail Lapidus.
A memorial service is set for June 26 at 10:30 a.m. at Graham Hitch Mortuary in Pleasanton.
