A surgeon by trade, Dr. Harold May has spent a lifetime saving lives and transforming communities.  The Dorchester NSC applauds him for his commitment to the advancement of the disadvantaged in Boston and beyond.

Dr. May’s life story winds through the hallowed halls of Harvard, the ranks of the Tuskegee Airmen, and missionary service in Haiti, where he opened a school and served as Chief of Surgery at a an understaffed hospital for 15 years.  It continues back to Massachusetts where he most recently was the Medical Director at Wrentham State School, retiring after 19 years from a medical center that bears his name.    

In his career and in his life, Dr. May has been concerned about the needs of urban youth.  Disturbed by a story of a young man convicted of murder who had demonstrated violent tendencies at age three, Dr. May was convinced that the most effective intervention in the life of an at-risk youth was when the child was still in the womb.  He committed himself to finding a way to break the cycle of poverty and crime that plagues urban communities, by nurturing pregnant mothers.  Dr. May founded FAMILY, Inc., (Fathers, Mothers, Infants, Elders and Youth) an organization that embodies the adage that it “takes a village to raise a child” with his affirmation that it needs to start before the child enters the world.  He partners with local organizations and academic institutions to surround struggling neighborhoods with the necessary resources so that families and their children can thrive. 

Says Dorchester NSC Director Alison Carter Marlow, “Dr. May’s faith is deep and his passions broad and our agency and neighborhood have been so fortunate to benefit from his leadership.  He is uncompromising in his ideals and persistent in his efforts to enact enduring change.”