Painter, illustrator, muralist, Mays studied at the Arts Students League, N.Y.C. under William Chase, at the Hawthorne School of Provincetown (Mass.) and at the Newlyn School of Painting (London) and Colarossi Academy (Paris). In 1915 he came to San Francisco to work on murals at the St. Francis Hotel. Mays traveled constantly and made several trips to Europe from 1924-1933. Returning from Europe, he remained on the East coast for three years and executed many commissions for the Public Works of Art Project. During this period President Roosevelt selected his painting "The Jungle" to hang in the Executive Office of the White House. In 1936, he bought a house in Carmel; later he taught at the Carnegie Institute from the late1940s to early 50s then returned to Carmel. Exhibited: California Palace of the Legion of Honor; Palace of Fine Arts, Pasadena Gallery; Whitney Museum; San Diego Fine Arts Gallery; Stendahl Gallery, Los Angeles. Murals: Paramount Theater, Los Angeles; Dudly P. Allen Memorial Museum, Oberlin, Ohio; Treasury Department, Philadelphia, PA; Public buildings of Washington, D.C.; Bryn Athyn Library, Pennsylvania; Grauman's Theatre, Los Angeles.