A. John "Jack" May, Distinguished Duane Morris Former Chairman, Dies at 79

March 25, 2008

PHILADELPHIA, March 24, 2008 - A. John "Jack" May, the former chairman of law firm Duane Morris LLP, who was affiliated with the firm for 54 of his 79 years, died Sunday in Florida of a heart attack he suffered at his Hobe Sound, Florida, home on March 18.

May began his career at Duane Morris in the Trial Practice Group on which the firm was then centered, but helped to create, and then practiced in, the Business Law (now Corporate Law) Practice Group. He was remembered by Duane Morris' present leaders as a brilliant business strategist, a canny advisor to his clients and a good friend blessed with a robust sense of humor and an enduring loyalty to his partners and staff.

"He was a great lawyer and teacher, but more than that, he brought fun and humor to everyone he touched and everything he did," said Frederick W. Dreher, a senior partner with the Corporate Practice Group. Dreher remembers fondly the spring day in 1964 when May hired him during an interview in a bar near Harvard University, where Dreher was finishing law school.

May was born in Petoskey, Michigan, on November 2, 1928. He earned an A.B. from Princeton University in 1950 and his LL.B. in 1954 from Harvard Law School. He joined Duane Morris in Philadelphia in 1954 and spent the rest of his career with the firm, as it grew from some 20 lawyers to more than 650. He became a partner at the firm in 1963, and was named chairman on July 25, 1989. He served in that position until 1994.

He resided in Berwyn, Pennsylvania, and in Hobe Sound at the Loblolly Golf Resort.

On December 31, 1998, he retired from daily work but retained an office as of counsel. An office on the firm's 11th floor at 30 South 17th Street, where the Corporate Practice Group is housed, still bears his desk and nameplate and contains photographs of May with his close friends at the firm.

Together, May and Dreher held court over many lunches at the Happy Rooster, the Sansom Street eatery and bar then owned by Dr. Abraham Ulitsky. "Clients came by, friends, lawyers - everyone," Dreher said. "It was a great business and social place to be, nearly every day Jack was in town."

A tarnished brass plaque, bearing the names "Dreher-May" sits in Dreher's office, next to May's, and a few blocks from its former home above the lawyers' perennial table at the Happy Rooster. Ulitksy would chase other customers away from the table whenever Dreher and May were coming, Dreher recalled.

"Jack served the firm and his community extremely well," said John Soroko, Duane Morris Chairman. "His business acumen, his sense of humor, his deft political touch and, most of all, his humane and balanced view of people and events made him a pleasure to work with, as a partner and friend. He will be remembered by all the hundreds of people who worked with him and enjoyed his company as a larger-than-life figure."

May was the former chairman of the board and director of PMA Capital Corporation, an insurance holding company. He was also an instrumental lawyer and advisor to Bethlehem's First Valley Bank, now part of Bank of America. He also worked with Urban Engineers, Inc.

May served in the U.S. Army, achieving the rank of Captain during his service with the 18th Airborne Corps and 45th Infantry Division in the Korean War, from 1951 to 1952. He served with the 28th Infantry Division in the Pennsylvania National Guard from 1954 to 1957.

An avid and excellent golfer, May loved the game so much he broadened its venues in the area. He helped to create the Waynesborough Country Club in Paoli and, later, the Stonewall Golf Links in Elverson, both in the Philadelphia suburbs.

May is survived by his wife, Gwendolyn, his daughters Ann Moore, Susan Eckman and Elizabeth Gieske and his son A. John May III. All four of his children are lawyers.