Dean L. May, 65, prolific writer on Western and Latter-day Saint history topics, died Tuesday, May 6, 2003, in LDS Hospital four days after a heart attack. He was one of the best known of the state's historians and was a frequent source for anyone looking into aspects of Western lore.
Mr. May was professor of history at the University of Utah, immediate past president of the Mormon History Association and a fellow of the Utah State Historical Society. He had served as chairman of the Utah Board of State History and as editor of the Journal of Mormon History.
"Professor May has touched many people's lives as a teacher, a scholar and a colleague," said Eric Hinderaker, chairman of the U. history Department.
Mr. May had been recognized as an outstanding teacher twice, earning the Students Choice Award for Teaching Excellence. In 2002, he was recipient of the Ramona Cannon Award for Teaching Excellence in the Humanities.
Mr. May wrote and produced two video series on Utah history: "A People's History of Utah," and "Utah Remembers," produced in 1996 in conjunction with the Utah Centennial celebration. His interest in the Mormon migration included a fascination with the stories of many European converts who crossed the ocean to gather with the church in America. In the summer of 2001, he crossed the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean on the Christian Radich, a sailing vessel
Mr. May's most recent book is "Three Frontiers: Family, Land and Society in the American West." Published in 1994 by Cambridge University Press, it won the Mormon History Association's Best Book Award.
He collaborated with other notable Utah historians Leonard J. Arrington and Feramorz Y. Fox on "Building the City of God: Community and Cooperation Among the Mormons." "Utah: A People's History," published by the U. press in 1987, was another of his well-known publications. Deseret News book editor Dennis Lythgoe, who sang with May in the Utah Symphony Chorus, found the U. scholar "a genuine intellectual. He was not just a Ph.D. scholar who had written several books on Western history, he was interested in everything. He was a voracious reader who could converse on many topics. He was a man of exceptional balance."
Mr. May's funeral will be at 11 a.m. Saturday in the Sugar House LDS Stake Center, 1621 S. 1100 East.