David May II; Scion Helped Family Store Chain Grow

David May II, grandson of the founder of the May Department Stores Co. and former vice chairman of the Board of Directors that oversees the several companies that operate 324 department stores in 31 states and the District of Columbia, died Tuesday, a day after his 80th birthday.

A company spokeswoman said he had just watched his daughter Alysia complete tennis practice at the Bel Air Country Club and was waiting for her at his car when he collapsed of an apparent heart attack. Alysia and her sisters Kathy and Anita are or were nationally ranked tennis players.

May was the first grandson of Col. David May, who opened a store under the May name in Denver in 1888. The company expanded to Los Angeles in 1923 and acquired A. Hamburger & Sons at 8th Street and Broadway, which became the downtown May Co.

David May II was credited with being the first department store executive to ask a competitor to occupy his territory. As May Co. became the anchor store in a series of new shopping centers--which May oversaw as head of the company’s real estate and construction division--he asked such companies as Sears to share the property in order to build shopper traffic.

He also was instrumental in developing the first shopping center in the United States, the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza in Los Angeles.

May was born in St. Louis, where May Department Stores Co. is headquartered. He graduated cum laude from Stanford University in 1933, became a merchandise buyer for the family stores that year and was first elected to the Board of Directors in 1937. He left the firm in 1947 to form a real estate and construction business but returned in 1955. He organized the real estate and construction division that was to prove crucial to the company’s expansion.

He was reelected a director that year, was named a vice president in 1956, executive vice president and chief financial officer in 1958, vice chairman in 1966 and vice chairman and treasurer in 1969. He retired in 1977 but continued his real estate and investment pursuits until his death.

May’s civic interests included trusteeships for the Jules Stein Eye Institute at UCLA and the National Jewish Center for Respiratory Medicine and Immunology. He was a past director of the Westlake School for Girls and president of the private, charitable Wilbur D. May and Tom May-David May II foundations.

Another of his favored institutions was the Wilbur D. May Museum in Reno. Wilbur May was David May II’s uncle and another pioneer in the department store chain. The public museum is a re-creation of Wilbur May’s life and contains mementos from his more than 40 trips around the world.

In addition to daughters Alysia, Kathy and Anita, May is survived by his wife, Dee, daughters Gloria, Amanda, Dalynn and Tommee, two adopted sons, Tom and David, and five grandchildren. They ask contributions to either the Wilbur D. May Museum, Washoe County, Reno, the Motion Picture Country Home in Woodland Hills, the Western Cardiac Foundation in Beverly Hills or the Jules Stein Eye Institute at UCLA.

A funeral service will be held Friday at 1:30 p.m. at the Church of the Recessional, Forest Lawn, Glendale.