As a young man he worked at a clothing factory, while attending night school at Cincinnati's Nelson Business College.

[4] After moving for health reasons to Leadville, Colorado, then undergoing a boom due to silver mining, he partnered with future brother-in-law Moses Shoenberg and opened a dry goods store in 1877.

Also in 1911, he bought the William Bar Dry Goods Company in St. Louis and merged it with The Famous Clothing Store renaming the new entity, Famous-Barr.

Some of the chains acquired included: Bernheim-Leader in Baltimore, Maryland; Kaufmann's in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; The Daniels & Fisher Stores Company in Denver, Colorado; Hecht's in Baltimore, Maryland; G. Fox & Co. in Hartford, Connecticut; and Meier & Frank in Portland, Oregon.

Early in the year he was elected vice president of Temple Israel and appointed chairman of the building committee.

May was also "to have charge of burial grounds", an obligation passed down from the Hebrew Benevolent Association as it evolved into the Congregation Israel.