Mays, David John 1896-1971

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MAYS, David John 1896-1971

PERSONAL:

Born November 22, 1896, in Richmond, VA; died February 17, 1971, in Richmond, VA; son of Harvey James and Helga (Nelson) Mays; married Ruth Reams, July 3, 1926. Education: Randolph-Macon College, attended 1914-16, 1999-20, Litt.D., 1955; University of Richmond, LL.B., 1924, LL.D., 1954,

CAREER:

Attorney, educator, and historian. Admitted to the Bar of the State of Virginia, 1923; Tucker, Bronson & Mays (law firm), Richmond, VA, founding partner, 1928; Mays, Valentine, Davenport & Moore, Richmond, senior partner; Virginia Legislative Commission, counsel, 1955; State of Virginia, counsel, 1959. University of Richmond, law lecturer, 1926-42, member of advisory committee trustees, 1959-71; University of Virginia McGregor Library, advisor, 1955-70. Virginia Commission on Constitutional Government, chairman, 1958-71; Virginia Library Board, member, 1953-63, chairman 1954-57; member of Virginia Legislative Commission. Military service: U.S. Army; served in Mexican Border Service, 1916-17; served in France 1918-19; attained rank of first lieutenant.

MEMBER:

American Bar Association, Virginia Bar Association (president, 1958-59), Richmond Bar Association (president, 1955), Virginia Historical Society (president, 1963-66), Bar Association of the City of New York, Fellows American Bar Foundation, Association of American Trial Lawyers, American Judicature Society, Institute for Early American History and Culture, American Historical Association, Historic Richmond, Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Nu Phi.

AWARDS, HONORS:

American Association of State and Local History Award of Merit, 1952; Institute for Early American History and Culture award, 1953; Pulitzer Prize for Biography, 1953, for Edmund Pendleton, 1721-1803.

WRITINGS:

Business Law, William Byrd (Richmond, VA), 1933.

Edmund Pendleton, 1721-1803: A Biography, two volumes, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1952, reprinted, Virginia State Library (Richmond, VA), 1980.

(Editor) The Letters and Papers of Edmund Pendleton, 1734-1803, two volumes, Virginia Historical Society/University Press of Virginia (Charlottesville, VA), 1967.

The Pursuit of Excellence: A History of the University of Richmond Law School, University of Richmond (Richmond, VA), 1970.

Contributor to journals, including Annual Reports of the Virginia State Bar Association.

SIDELIGHTS:

Virginia attorney David John Mays was a leading citizen of Richmond, an advocate of racial equality in state law, and a respected historian. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Biography in 1953 for his two-volume Edmund Pendleton, 1721-1803, a biography of the eighteenth-century attorney who, after actively participating in the American Revolution, became chief judge of the Virginia Commonwealth.

In a review of Edmund Pendleton, 1721-1803 for the New York Times, Dumas Malone wrote that Mays "has not been content with recovering Pendleton in full likeness, but has also sought to re-create the society in which he lived. The author fears that the accounts of tobacco culture, of the country and general courts of pre-Revolutionary Virginia, and of the decline of the plantation system may be regarded as 'encumbrances'; but they are among the best things in his book."

In addition to writing the definitive biography of Pendleton, Mays also edited a collection of Pendleton's papers, which was published in 1967. In The Letters and Papers of Edmund Pendleton, 1734-1803 Mays organizes speech transcripts, letters, and other papers by date, providing a view not only of Pendleton's life but also of the development of state and federal law as the newly formed nation made the transition from British law to a unique American system of justice.

In addition to his historical writing, Mays also published Business Law in 1933, and Pursuit of Excellence, a 1970 history of his alma mater, the University of Richmond Law School.