Obituary of Lewis Victor Mays

Lewis Victor Mays, Jr. Artist and author, Lewis Victor Mays, Jr., 87, died peacefully in his home in Belfast, Maine, with his children at his side, on Friday, April 17, 2015. The son of Indiana transplants, Lewis Victor Mays and Sara Fadely, Victor Mays was born in New York City in 1927 and grew up in Bronxville, NY. Enlisting in the Navy during the final months of World War II, he began his ROTC at Ohio State in 1945, transferring to Yale University in 1946 where he majored in art and was awarded his B.A. in 1949. The newly-commissioned Lieutenant joined the ranks of Naval Intelligence and was stationed in Panama from 1952 to 1953. He continued to serve in the Naval Reserve until 1978, commanding his Intelligence unit and retiring as a Captain. In 1950, he met his beloved Lynnabeth Olwin (b.1930) at an anniversary party of a close friend. It was the beginning of an enduring and loving union, continuing until her death in 2008. Lynnabeth and Victor married at her parents’ home in Waterville, OH, in 1954 and moved into a small home in Noank, CT. Their first child, Peyton Anderson Mays, was born the following year. The family moved to Clinton, CT where they welcomed their second child, Sara Louise Mays in 1958. Lewis Jefferson Mays, their third child, arrived in 1965. A college thesis on the American whaling industry in the 19th century gave birth to his first book, Fast Iron, published in 1953, a novel for young adults, it won the Boys Club of America’s Junior Book Awards Medal in 1954. His second novel, Action Starboard!, set during the War of 1812, followed in 1956, Pathway to a Village: A History of Bronxville appeared in 1961and his young adult spy novel Dead Reckoning was published in 1967. He illustrated and created the book jackets for all four. He also enjoyed a prolific career as a freelance illustrator of magazines and books in those years, working into the small hours each night in his attic studio. In 1970, he won a Coretta Scott King Award for his illustrations for Martin Luther King, Jr., Man of Peace. Upon his retirement from the Navy, Mays turned from illustration to what became his life’s work and joy: meticulously-researched, historical marine watercolors. Known for his richly detailed and evocative scenes of working craft from the 19th and early 20th centuries, his paintings won numerous awards over the years, including two Best in Show and six Awards of Excellence from the Mystic Seaport Museum and have been exhibited in galleries and museums from coast to coast. He was a founding member and former Fellow and director of the American Society of Marine Artists. Victor shared with his wife a deep love for and dedication to their community. In the course of their years in Clinton he campaigned for zoning laws to protect historic areas, served as a Justice of the Peace, Chairman of the Liberty Green Historic District Establishment, President of the Grove Beach Improvement Association, and chaired or served on the boards of the Henry Carter Hull Library, the Clinton Historical Society and the Clinton Land Conservation Trust. He designed the Clinton Town Seal. He is remembered as a wise, principled, kind and gentle man with a keen sense of humor, who enjoyed time with his family above all else —as station wagon master in expeditions across the country; as a reader of bedtime stories; as the skipper of the family sailing dory, Curlew; as a tireless assistant (and sometimes, it must be said, chief contributor) in grade school project efforts —and as one to always offer a sympathetic and supportive ear to those who loved him. He is survived by his son Peyton, of Seattle, his daughter Sara Hessler and her husband Bob, of Ellsworth, ME, his son Lewis Jefferson and his wife Susan Lyons of New York City, and by three grandchildren, Katie Hessler of New York City, John Hessler of Atlanta, and Meagan Mays and her husband Matt, of Nashville. Contributions in his memory to the Clinton Historical Society(103 E Main St, Clinton, CT 06413.) or Waldo County Home Health & Hospice, P.O. Box 287, Belfast, ME 04915 are welcomed. Arrangements are under the care of Riposta Funeral Home.