Anyone who sat around a campfire with Allan May soon knew where he stood on some environmental groups. He didn’t like them.
At the same time, he considered himself an environmentalist.
He was also a journalist whose career crossed the country, but most of his writing time and all of his heart were in Snohomish County and the Cascade Mountains.
May, 82, died early Monday after a long illness. Funeral services were pending Monday night.
He was a reporter for The Herald for 34 years, time for him to become embedded in community activities and his beloved mountains.
“I’d say he was very much a conservationist,” said Ron DeHart, a friend of May and spokesman for the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest. “He believed in broader uses of forest land and the resources thereon.”
He retired as a reporter at the end of 1988.
May was an avid hiker, backpacker and skier. He wrote about the community for the paper, and about history, the mountains and the Northwest coast for publishers in more than a half dozen books.
One of his most controversial books, “A Voice in the Wilderness,” put forth a strong voice for wilderness preservation and nature conservation. It also suggested that people watch out for unworthy, self-serving, self-appointed protectors who are actually selling out to big money, according to one reviewer.
A battle-tested Marine during World War II, May graduated from the University of Illinois with a journalism degree. He worked in newspapers in Illinois, New York and Washington before starting with The Herald in 1954. While working at The Herald, he obtained a master’s degree in journalism.
He had many jobs at the Snohomish County daily, including writing in south Snohomish County. He resided for several years in Mountlake Terrace, where he became a reserve police officer.
Other assignments included working in Everett city government and communities in north Snohomish County, where he formed some lasting connections.
Retired Snohomish County Superior Court Judge Robert Bibb recalls when he was the part-time city attorney for Darrington. He and May would carpool from Bibb’s home, then in Arlington, to Darrington for monthly council meetings.
Over the years, May and Bibb embarked on numerous backpacking or skiing trips.
May was conservative in many respects, Bibb said, but he was liberal in other areas.
“He was a hard person to put in a slot,” Bibb said. But he was quick to tell folks he didn’t like such environmental groups as the Sierra Club, Bibb added.
Long after his retirement, May continued to attend weekly lunch sessions with former sources in the Arlington area, Arlington attorney Richard Bailey said.
“He was proud of his service and the Marine Corps,” Bailey said. “I always thought of Allan as being friendly, outgoing, sincere in his manners. He was respectful of people.”
When he retired, May worked part-time for the U.S. Forest Service writing internal publications for the agency, DeHart said.
“Allan May was an absolute friend to me personally and to the agency,” DeHart said. “He will be missed.”
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