Members' 25-Year Reminiscences

Richard May, Jr., FAICP

Nyack, New York

Some highlights of my planning career:

• In 1940, while studying planning at Columbia with Carl Feiss and Sir Raymond Unwin (designer of Welwyn and Letchworth garden suburbs), the class of five went to the AIP meeting at Fontana Dam, Tennessee, with 200 other would-be planners.

• In 1941, while on my first job in Quincy, Illinois, I met Walter Blucher at 1313 E. 60th St. in Chicago. He became my mentor and friend.

• After World War II (1946), while a Land Planner with the Philadelphia Planning Department, I became an Associate Member of AIP.

• During the 1948 National Planning Conference in New York, I was MC and organizer of the "Planner's Cul-de-Sac" spoof starring many young planners.

• In 1952, I was program chair for the AIP Conference in Newark, New Jersey.

• During the 1960s, I served as New York Chapter President and subsequently Secretary Treasurer of APA national.

• After retiring from UN Habitat in 1980, I founded the International Division of APA and became the editor of its newsletter The Interplan.

1970 Note from Walter Blucher