JOHN ?JAKE? BICHARD MAY JR. - CESC

A SHORT HISTORY
OF
THE LIFE AND WORK OF
JOHN “JAKE” BICHARD MAY JR.
by Susan May
Jackson, New Hampshire
2006

Susan with the Chair that Jake made for her

A SHORT HISTORY
OF
THE LIFE AND WORK OF
JOHN “JAKE” BICHARD MAY JR.
by Susan May
Thanks to Joel Pratt, Mack Beal and
Susan Norton-Taylor May
Jake was born John Bichard May, Jr. in 1908 in
Duxbury, MA, the first of four sons to Dr. and Mrs.
John May. His middle name, Bichard, was the family
name of his great-grandmother who came from
the islands of Alderney and Guernsey in the English
Channel.
After several moves, the May family settled in Cohasset,
where Mrs. May ran a small private kindergarten,
and Dr. May made his rounds by horse and
buggy. Sometime in the 20’s Dr. May gave up his
medical practice in favor of ornithology and in the
late 20’s he succeeded Edward Howe Forbush as
the state Ornithologist with the Department of Agriculture.
Dr. May gave lectures to adults and to school children
and he authored or edited many articles and at
least three books on birds. Every summer the family
moved to Little Squam Lake in Holderness, NH,
where the Mays ran a girls’ camp called Winnetaska.
With four sons, it seemed a better idea to have
a boys’ camp so they made the switch sometime
after Dick’s birth in 1915.
People have asked me how the May brothers found
their way to Jackson. I suppose it was during those
summers of canoe trips and hiking overnights that
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they found the White Mountains and then later
became curious about this new sport of skiing. With
a teacher and a naturalist for parents, it’s easy to
see how the brothers developed a fondness for the
outdoors, for trees and ultimately for making things
of wood. Each one, in fact, built at least parts of his
own house.
In 1926, Jake and his childhood friend, Elmer “Pop”
Pratt entered the Boston Architectural Club when it
was still a free school. They shared a series of
cheap apartments all over Beacon Hill, including
one in Champney Place and they worked as apprentice
draftsmen to pay the bills. Neither finished
the 7 year program at the school. Around 1934
Jake worked with the Civilian Conservation Corps
on Mt. Greylock in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
He had a blueberry business on Cape Cod for a
while and even tried distributing shellfish in Western
Massachusetts till one day when his truck broke
down, the ice melted and the fish spoiled. This was
a man with enormous talent but little business
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sense. During these years, Jake would frequently
show up at the Pratt house with a piece of furniture
to show to Pop. Pop knew that this meant Jake
needed money so he’d buy the piece for whatever
low price Jake named plus a good meal. The Pratts
ended up with about 15 pieces either commissioned
or bought in this way.
As for people skills, it’s well known that Jake didn’t
possess those either, although my Mother says he
charmed her fellow waitresses at Whitneys’ in the
early 40’s and certainly he made an impression
wherever he went. And Pop Pratt’s son Joel liked
his visits. He says Jake was “big and hearty and
loved children”.
In 1941 Jake married Thalia Keith, daughter of the
mayor of Brockton and sister of state representative
Hastings Keith. By November, they were living in
Jackson and their first child, Gail, was born. They
lived at Overlook in the cottage that Nicholas Howe
now occupies, and Jake used Stanley Howe’s workshop,
which is the red section of the main Overlook
house, now Ben Greene’s home. On the inside
doorway trim there are still scratch marks visible
every three inches. These marks were for ski measurements
as Jake was in business customizing skis.
Here’s how Mack Beal described them to me:
Jake bought hickory blanks from the Paris Ski Company
of Paris, ME. These blanks were about 1” thick
by 3” wide with one end already steamed into a
curve for the tip.
Jake would use various hand tools, including a draw
shave and planes to create a raised ridge along the
center of the ski flattening out at the binding area
and as the tip or shovel started to curve upwards.
He rounded all the top edges, stained the hickory to
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a dark brown, then scraped off the stain along all the
edges to create a lighter colored band around the
whole ski. This made a very attractive finished ski.
He would then use a “burning pencil” to inscribe
“Jake May Special” onto each ski. For the ski bottoms,
Jake first put white celluloid on the edges of
the shovel to protect it from wearing out. Then, he
would install the steel edges. The early edges were
simply thin narrow rectangles of steel about 8” long
that screwed into the rabbetted edges of the ski.
Later, edges were modified so that the ends interlocked
and later, edges angled from top to bottom
to provide a better fit and smoother ride. Both Dick
May and Francis Sargent (later governor of Massachusetts)
had their “Jake May” skis with them at
Camp Hale.
By the time World War II started, Mrs. May had
closed her school and started working at Derby
Academy in Hingham. At this time, Jake and Thalia
went to live in Cohasset and Jake adapted the
schoolhouse to be their home, using one of the
classrooms for his shop.
This schoolhouse, incidentally, was a Hodgdon prefab
dating from World War I. The next two kids,
Keith and Fitz were born in Brockton. Jake’s acute
asthma kept him from active duty and he spent
some of the war making wood gun stocks in South
Boston.
He was also in the Cohasset Company of the Massachusetts
State Guard serving as a cook when
they were on maneuvers. His friend Pop Pratt was
second in command of the unit. By 1948, the family
of five was back in Jackson.
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They bought a small cape house beyond what is
now Black Mountain Ski Area. Jake added a second
floor to the house and worked in the old schoolhouse
which later became the base lodge of the ski
area.
After the schoolhouse he had a workshop in a
building behind what is now the bar of the Wildcat
Tavern. Brothers Bill and Dick joined Jake there.
Bill, his wife Eleanor and daughter Wendy lived both
in Stanley Howe’s house and in the Shapleigh
house.
Later, Jake would move his workshop into the shed
next to his house and their living room doubled as
showroom for his work.
Jake kept a barrel of cider in his basement for which
he was apparently well-known. Many people have
mentioned this to me. Last year Roger Burnell told
me he did a lot of surveying for Jake and at the end
of a day; Jake would invite him down cellar for a
glass or two.
Cynthia Pratt Pensinger told me she and a friend
were visiting, they were asked to go get some cider
for another guest, then they helped themselves to a
few and later went skiing. She says it’s the only
time she ever skied uphill.
Jake and Thalia had a grandfather clock that was
too tall to fit in the living room so Jake scooped a
piece out of the ceiling to accommodate it. It’s still
there.
The house is of traditional design except for the
dining room, which extends beyond the rectangular
footprint. That still has floor to ceiling windows that
Jake put in looking out over the brook.
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In this room was one of Jake’s free form coffee
tables made from a huge tree stump and roots,
smoothed and varnished and with a large glass top.
Since I was close to floor level at that time, I liked
looking for the tiny toys that the kids had placed in
the crooks of the tree.
During these years in Jackson, Jake developed his
art and incidentally owned one of the first Volkswagen
microbuses in this country - a red and black one
with the sightseeing windows along the edge of the
roof. I think for a short time he was running a taxi
service with the bus. The family traveled to Florida
in the winters so Jake could try to find some relief
from the asthma. At this time he’d make a side trip
to Cuba to buy wood to be shipped to New Hampshire.
In his shop, Jake was making door knobs to sell to
his friend Pop’s firm, WC Vaughan Company of
Boston. Pop would design the knobs and send the
wood to Jake. For someone as creative as Jake,
manufacturing the knobs was tedious.
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In addition to having Mack Beal turn about 10,000
knobs, he later subcontracted the turning out to a
Mr. Hall (I’d be interested to know who this Mr. Hall
was) without telling Pop Pratt. Mr. Hall charged
very little to do this and Jake could pocket some of
the money. After some time, Pop found out and
took his business directly to Mr. Hall. This was the
first strain on their friendship.
Jake also designed and made lots of different pepper
mills (which because they have carbon steel
innards, still work), and, moved from furniture to
exquisite bowls. Mack Beal also turned some of the
pepper mills, and one day, while cutting up some
tropical wood on a band saw cut open a nest of
small coral snakes. Mack quickly tossed the pieces
of wood out the door.
Jake also was responsible for the little sap buckets
that were given to winners of the annual Sap Run
Race at Black. He made small chairs for family
children - I had one, but Daddy let someone borrow
it and it was never returned.
About five years ago I found pieces for one in the
cellar which I sent to Jake’s son John to assemble.
It’s possible the one that Warren bought for the
Historical Society is indeed my old missing chair
with rockers added.
Around 1946, a consortium consisting of Jake, Dick,
and Bill May, Rink Earle and Bob Cann and others
bought a rope tow from Woody Stanton of Bartlett.
They made a few improvements and set it up on the
Davis Pasture opposite Jake’s house. When Black
Mountain Ski Area opened, the rope tow got sold
again, this time to Iron Mountain House where it
went up the slope below Duck’s Head to the left of
the Red Fox parking lot. The last Dick knew, this
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ope tow was somewhere in the Sanford, Maine
area in the 1970’s.
Jake and Thalia’s fourth child, Carolyn was born in
1948, and Sam in 1952, and not too long after
Sam’s birth the Mays left Jackson for Rockport, ME.
Jake left there soon afterwards. After this he lived
in New York City, New Hope, PA and in Portsmouth,
NH. In about 1960, he showed up at our house in
his Citroën station wagon (do you see a family trait
here?) with his new wife, Susan Norton-Taylor, a
potter.
From this point I will inject word for word some
comments that she wrote:
During several summers while he was living in
Rockport he joined the faculty of Haystack Mt. Craft
School where he taught wood turning and furniture
design.
Winters were spent in Sarasota, Florida, first with
the entire family and later with only a couple of his
children since he and Thalia had decided to part
company and some of the children stayed with her
in Maine.
After their divorce, Jake married Susan Norton-Taylor,
whom he had met at Haystack . They moved to
Portsmouth, NH and purchased a four story brick
building on the Piscataqua River which included a
large dock and a view of the Memorial Bridge (a
draw bridge).
On more than one occasion they would see a vessel
trying to get the bridge open. Apparently the bridge
tender was a sound sleeper so they would telephone
him to wake him up. A navy ship got stalled
there one day. It had to lower the anchor so it
wouldn’t get swept into the bridge, the anchor got
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hooked onto a cable running across the bottom of
the river– it was a scene and a half!
Sue was a potter so they put a ceramic studio in the
basement, a showroom on the first floor (at street
level), Jake’s woodworking shop on the second and
mostly nothing on the third. That’s where a family of
bats hibernated. Every time Sue fired her large kiln,
the bats would think warm weather had come and
would fly downstairs looking for insects.
Jake exhibited his furniture, lamps, bowls and pepper
mills in the showroom, also Sue’s pottery, some
weavings, silver and pewter, glass, etc. During their
years there, their first child was born, named Scott
Duncan. Jake designed and he and Sue built, a
house for a client in Kittery, Maine, and they started
a ceramic free-standing fireplace business. The
“firepots” were hand made, initially of fireclay, then
fired in Sue’s kiln.
After several years there they decided to set up a
shop further south and moved to Little Compton, R.I
Jake continued making firepots, now with silicon
carbide, a more durable material, and Sue continued
her pottery operation. However, demand was
increasing for the fireplaces and Jake finally decided
to farm out the manufacture to a crucible
company in Taunton, Ma.
This was successful for a while but eventually
turned sour because the owner was covertly trying
to take over the manufacture and sales, leaving
nothing for Jake and Sue.
Jake trusted everyone and was really never tuned
into the modern world of “gimme” and greed. The
company even sued them for some trumped up
cause and they had to hire an attorney and counter
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sue. They won but it was costly and time consuming
and not the way either Jake or Sue wanted to
spend their time.
Meanwhile, Jake had built a wood sailing vessel
which they launched at Westport Harbor and enjoyed
many hours of delightful sailing.
Also, they had three more children, Joan, Nat, and
John, keeping Sue very busy, while also running the
office side of the firepot business.
Jake’s dream for years had been to build a large
enough boat to live on, have a workshop, and travel
to the islands for tropical woods for his turnings, etc.
He decided to go ahead with that plan and after
consulting several naval architects, decided on a
55’ steel Nova Scotian, double ended design with a
junk rig.
He found a yard near Fall River, Ma. to build it and
work began in the fall of 1967. Then tragically on
April 19, 1968, their first born son, Duncan, was hit
by a car while riding his bike and died instantly. He
was seven and a half, exceedingly bright, a gifted,
charming little boy. Neither Jake or Sue ever got
over it. But life goes on and there were those left
behind who still needed nurturing and love.
In July 1969 Sue gave birth to Ned, their fifth child.
In the meantime, work on the hull of the new boat
was completed so Jake had it moved to Little Compton
and parked in the driveway so he could outfit
the interior, including foam insulation, cabinets,
bunks, etc. They had decided to sell the firepot
business and move on to the boat so moved into
Fall River while it was being finished.
The boat was launched in 1970 and Jake and a
crew sailed it to Oxford, Maryland where Sue and
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the children had gone earlier to stay with Sue’s
parents and wait for their new home to arrive.
They all moved on and in the fall of 1971, left Oxford
for parts south.
Sue home schooled all the children as they traveled.
They tied up at a marina in Florida for a while where
Sue put the children in school.
They sailed around the Caribbean Islands, back to
Florida, over to the Gulf side, etc., back and forth to
Westport, Ma. Finally, on one trip when the boat
had been hauled out in Cambridge, Md. Jake had a
car accident and was laid up for some months.
After he recovered, he moved back on Aurora and
sailed it up to Portsmouth, NH where it suffered
some damage from a hurricane and had to be
hauled out again. Regrettably, he never got it back
in the water.
Meanwhile, he had gotten involved in the Strawberrie
Banke village project and was hired on as the
resident woodworker. He had a small shop and
started making furniture and doing wood turnings.
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The children had stayed in Maryland to go to school
but spent their summers with Jake.
Now back to my part of this story:
One winter in the mid 80’s Jake had some spare
time and I needed some work done so he spent two
months at my house in Boston rebuilding, by hand,
my stair railings and newel posts which had been
burned, and making moldings for door frames and
trim that had been taken out in a fit of 60’s/70’s
“modernization”.
In spite of leaving two wives (he said they left him)
he talked constantly about his boys - there being a
pretty obvious inability to relate well to females.
He used to tell us about his “Sunday stew”, a meal
made from the previous weeks’ leftovers. This
never worked for me.
My son still quotes Jake asking for seconds by
saying “Does anyone want this more than I do?”
I was running a small Bed & Breakfast then, and
Jake charmed my guests with his stories about his
boat and his children.
In 1986, Jake came to Jackson for the last time, to
be honored as one of the “Legends of Jackson
Skiing”.
And more comments from Sue:
After graduating from Bates College in 1988, John,
Sue and Jake’s second son , joined Jake at Strawbery
Banke.
In addition, his son Nat is a talented architect and
builder, Joan is an artist, Ned has done glass blowing
(though his main talent as a financial wizard was
probably not inherited from Jake!), Sam and Keith
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are builders, masons, (& expert businessmen), Carolyn
is an interior designer and Fitz is a ski instructor
so a piece of Jake lives on in each one.
Interestingly, John is the only one of Jake’s ten
children who was named after him and he is the one
who followed in his footsteps as far as being an
extremely talented and creative wood turner and
furniture maker.
Jake taught him well.
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Jake’s Farewell
In March of 1989 at the age of 81 while
doing what he loved, turning a bowl, Jake
had a fatal heart attack.
He was a Renaissance man, an artist,
designer, architect, inventor, sailor, chef,
builder (houses and boats and anything
else) woodworker, electrician, plumber,
outdoorsman, skier, In essence, he could
do just about anything.
He left a considerable body of work and
was included in many exhibitions and galleries
throughout his working life.
As recently as 2002, two of his pieces were
in an exhibition at the Smithsonian’s Renwick
Gallery, and also in the book Wood
Turning in North America Since 1930.
I believe we have a copy of that book here
tonight which will then be donated to the
Jackson Library.
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