An MTF Tribute to our friend         
Joe May       

Joe May
Sunday, September 24th, 2023


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Official Obituary

This was posted on Facebook by Joe's dear friend Tim Jones:

A true Alaskan and adventurer on land and sea, and a dear friend, Joe May died Sunday September 24, 2023. Just a day before, he had sent the following to me to check it for spelling and punctuation and asked me to post it on his Facebook page after he was gone. His own eulogy:

Soldier, sailor, dog musher, scholar,
lover of good books, old wooden boats, handsome dogs, and a pretty girl.
Sailed rivers, lakes, and oceans as Captain, cook, and deckhand.                                                                                
Shut of the sea, wandered the land in search of a quiet place to read,
and found it                                                                                                                                                                                                 
In a house of logs
with San and her dog
embraced by boreal night.
A tin-roofed shack
with privy out back
and propane lamps for light.
Addendum:
I've chosen these hills
to sleep and dream,
through summer's light and winter's night,
of halcyon times gone by.
On-by...On-by...On-by …

And, there's this: I used to think getting old was about vanity—but actually it’s about losing people you love. Getting wrinkles is trivial. – Eugene O’Neill





Joe was a Charter Member of the Motorcycle Tourer's Forum, helping to set the tone and quality level of the Forum.


         


A few select comments from Joe's MTF Friends:


I first met Joe in 1980, the year he won the Iditarod. He came to Ambler, AK where I was teaching.One of the other teachers was a big time musher who ran the Iditarod several times and Joe came to visit him. His goal was to look at village dogs as they were some of the toughest dogs around. He wanted to breed some of that toughness in his dogs. I was impressed with him as he was a very humble person for someone who just won the Iditarod. He spent several days in Ambler. This is Joe's Iditarod mushing history.....he ran it 4 times. https://iditarod.com/race/mushers/508-Joe-May/

When I ran the Iditarod in '86, I had to finish a 200 mile qualifier in '85. Joe put on the qualifier and made it more of a seminar where I learned a lot.

It was many years after that he got involved in motorcycles and I ran into him again. That's when he joined this forum. We did some riding together. I used to ride to his place in Trapper Creek.

In 2004 he talked me in to doing the "serum run" with him. That was a run from Nenana to Nome to commemorate the original serum run. https://archives.alaska.gov/education/serum.html It was dog teams running with snow machine support. We both drove snow machines and were assigned a musher to help. We created a web page on the MTF with lots of pictures.....I lost the link and don't know if it's still here or not?

We got together off and on over the years....sometimes spending several years without contact. I regret to say we haven't been in contact for the last several years. I was surprised to see he passed away.
  -  Wheeldog

I'm sorry to hear about Joe's passing. I did not know about his 'cold weather' exploits! He got around to the lower 48 and attended my RTE in 2020. I also think I ran into him at Stagecoach many years ago.
  -  Robert (SeebeeCapt) Rehkopf

Was Joe the Alaskan with the English g/f? I recall someone saying they met a girl at a bar and offered her a place to live if she would chop firewood.
  -  Bob (Bobmeinet) Fisher

His wife was an English lady who was a very good bronze sculptress.  I spent some time with them when I was up in Alaska in 2003.
  -  Solarwing

Sorry to hear. Joe was a wonderful person to be around.
  -  1K1DAY

Sorry to see this about Joe ... enjoyed reading his posts and stories. Saw photos of his home there in Trapper Creek and was very impressed with is picture window view of Denali. Think he talked about the spring festival there in TC when the first bit of bare pavement appeared in the spring  .. :) ... and the ladies dressing up in their finery over their winter coats and mukluks. :) Wasn't he a sea captain for awhile too ?? Seems he had been around a bit and saw some things.  RIP Joe ..
  -   Lou in Omaha (RhinoStar)

Joe was a Merchant Marine before he moved to Alaska in 1970.  Joe and a friend ran a trap line and someone asked them to shut town there trapline for a while to run a dog sled race.  Joe and his partner entered the race, Joe took 1st and his partner took 3rd.
  -  Solarwing

He and Wheeldog were instrumental in helping me plan my Alaska trip in 2002.
  -  Art Wallace Jr.



   







    Rest In Peace Joe!