Ron May has a least six of my cards. R.I.P, buddy.
Ron May, longtime Chicago tech gadfly, dead at 57
By Wailin Wong
Tribune reporter
2:46 p.m. CDT, June 24, 2013
Ron May, a longtime chronicler of Chicago’s technology and startup community, died Sunday night at the age of 57.
May’s brother, Paul May, said he died from complications due to diabetes.
May preceded the current renaissance in the Chicago startup scene, having become a well-known figure during the first dot-com boom. In the late 1990’s, he launched an email newsletter called The May Report that was stuffed with his commentary on Chicago tech news; emails from readers and sources reprinted wholesale, sometimes without their permission; rants against companies or people with whom he took issue; and musings on his personal life, including details on his deteriorating health in recent years.
May, who seemed to endear himself to as many startup founders and community members as he alienated, was impossible to miss at networking events around town. His penchant for loudly interrupting speakers, for example, got him banned from some events, although he was welcomed at others. Earlier in June, when former Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center Chief Executive Kevin Willer spoke at the City Club of Chicago, he introduced May to his mother, who was in the audience.
Frank Gruber, co-founder of Chicago-based Tech Cocktail, a media company created in 2006 that organizes events for entrepreneurs, said on Twitter on Monday that May only missed one Tech Cocktail ever.
May’s stature during the first tech boom earned him a 2000 profile by David Barboza of the New York Times that said “the cantankerous Mr. May is running, virtually by himself, one of the most influential high-tech publications in the Midwest.”
May attended the University of Chicago, though he didn’t graduate, and worked as a recruiter. He also wrote a column for The Chicago Computer Guide. After being hospitalized for a diabetic condition, he restarted his writing career, this time as an independent journalist when The Chicago Computer Guide declined to publish his new column, according to the New York Times profile.
One of May’s most well-known traits was asking - sometimes quite forcefully - attendees of tech events for their business cards, which he would collect in a plastic grocery bag and later type up for his newsletters, publishing everyone’s phone numbers and email addresses. He would also carry around a tape recorder. May’s quirks were simultaneously celebrated and skewered by Chicago-based Web developer Tim Saylor, who created a site called ronmayfacts.com modeled after the hyperbolic parody site Chuck Norris Facts.
“Ron May is a riddle, wrapped in an enigma, sandwiched between two business cards,” one of the facts read, accompanied by a drawing of May in profile, Alfred Hitchcock-style, holding a tape recorder.
While other online sources of startup news, including Silicon Valley outlet TechCrunch and its ilk, rose to prominence in recent years, May persisted with his work. And the format of his email newsletter remained largely unchanged, despite efforts to spruce up his website and experiments with Twitter.
May’s last report was sent out on June 12. He was preceded in death by his father, Dr. Frederick May, and is survived by his mother, Harriet; his sister, Lisa Jean Cortez; his two brothers, Paul and David, and their families; and many aunts, uncles and cousins.
wawong@tribune.com
chicagotribune.com
Tech blogger May's final scoop: His own death
John Pletz
Crain's Chicago Business
June 24, 2013
Blogger and gadfly Ron May, who covered the ups and downs of the Chicago tech scene for more than a decade, died late yesterday.
Appropriately, it was reported on his blog under the headline “Final report — No really.” Mr. May, who had been receiving dialysis for eight years, died after checking into St. Joseph Hospital with a foot infection earlier this month.
"To all my family, friends, faithful readers, supporters, detractors, gadflies, cronies and anyone else I hit (with) my cane, I am signing off one last time," his blog said today. "Till we all meet again. I have to go now. This really is my final report. Ronald Peter May left this world on June 23rd 2013 at 11:47 p.m."
A family member confirmed his death from complications of diabetes.
Best known for vacuuming up business cards at parties and Meetups, reporting who said what to him and others, Mr. May chronicled the comings and goings of Chicago tech companies and entrepreneurs with reports that were sensational and, often, personal.
He once flew to Colorado to crash a shareholder meeting of "Flip" Filipowski's Divine InterVentures, said Andy Crestodina, co-founder of Orbit Media Studios, a Chicago web-design firm. Mr. Crestodina met Mr. May in 2001 and interviewed him a year ago. “He was blogging before anyone knew what a blog was,” he says. “He didn't know how to draw a line — anywhere.”
His final blog post, written by a friend and fan of the long-running blog who discussed the idea with Mr. May well before his death, acknowledged his take-no-prisoners approach. “There are no doubts that many of you are breathing a sigh of relief that they'll never be the subject of another snarky headline or personally intrusive investigation. You know who you are; I don't have to remind anyone of my favorite subjects.”
He was equally willing to write about his own physical ailments, writing frequently about the agony of undergoing kidney dialysis. The blog continued to bare all until the end:
“After several days of dealing with doctors and being pumped with antibiotics, the 'healers' determined that it was limb-threatening and the foot or leg may have to go. I was wheeled into the operating theatre on Wednesday, June 19th early morning. While in recovery, at 9:01 a.m. I stopped breathing and my biology was calling the shots. Despite much prayer and hope it was Game Over.”
Despite health problems, he was still hard at work until very recently, showing up to hear Kevin Willer, former CEO of the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center, address the City Club in River North in early June.
A joker through and through, Mr. May’s final post concludes: "So if you have sent me any emails recently, don't expect a response
Follow John on Twitter at @JohnPletz.
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