Citizenship, Statesmanship & Stewardship are Hallmarks of His Life

Joe May, engineer, inventor, businessman, Founder of EIT, and for twenty years the 33rd District's Delegate to the Virginia House of Delegates will take over the chairmanship of The Loudoun Laurels March 18th.

"It is with tremendous gratitude and confidence that I hand the reins of this wonderful program to Joe," said Dr. Kitty Saylor, who has chaired the program for three years. "His deep understanding of the critical importance of stewardship to all our communities will be invaluable, and his commitment to our younger citizens will propel The Loudoun Laurels Stewardship Trust, our scholarship program, to even greater heights."

Saylor, recently retired CEO of REHAU, is now serving as the Interim President and CEO of the Montana State University Alumni Foundation.

"I am honored to follow in Kitty's footsteps at The Loudoun Laurels," noted May. "The work we do to recognize and remember outstanding stewards of our community and to ensure that some of our students with outstanding potential receive the opportunity to further their education is very important to me. I will work hard to continue these commitments to our community."

Created in 2008, The Loudoun Laurels was established to seek out, recognize, honor and record for posterity the stories of the men and women who make Loudoun County special.

Last year, with the support of its Leadership Committee, the program's Stewardship Trust awarded its first two $10,000 scholarships to graduating Loudoun County seniors with the commitment to continue the grant at that level for three successive years if the recipients' conduct and grades remain exemplary.

Known for his generosity and his brilliance as an inventor, May was honored for Leadership by The Loudoun Laurels in 2010. As a Laureate, he has served on both the Founders and the Leadership Committees.

His videotaped oral history and those of other Laureates reside in The Loudoun Laurels Archive in the Thomas Balch Library in Leesburg.

"Joe instinctively looks for problems to solve," said Middleburg Bank Chairman Joe Boling, who has served on the Leadership Committee with May. "He holds more than twenty patents on everything from the instrument used to measure octane on gasoline to the yellow line that allows television viewers to see clearly how far it is to the next first down in football games. He is known for his legislation that established the House's Science and Technology Committee, his patronage of the Rural Rustic Roads Program and the GPS Tracking Bill among others.

"He is a gentleman and a scholar who is as devoted to his community and its constituents as he is to his wonderful family. Joe and his wife, Bobby, are well known for their love of the Loudoun community and for their many acts of kindness and generosity.

"As a statesman in the Virginia House of Delegates for nearly two decades, Joe set a standard of civility and fairness in a sometimes less than friendly chamber," Boling concluded. "His quiet, historic work to help Northern Virginia respond successfully to technology opportunities and transportation challenges will go down in the annals of statesmanship as the gold standard."

Born in Broadville, Virginia, May attended Virginia Tech and built Electronic Instrumentation and Technology (EIT) with his wife, Bobby. But, however busy, May has always had time to help. Whether as a science fair judge, a little league umpire, a board member or a WWII historian for families who have no record of where and how their relatives served, he is always inclined to help.

"There is so much to do," explained May. "I'm never bored and I always have a list of problems to solve."

Today, EIT employs over 275 people at their Sterling and Danville, Virginia and Salem, New Hampshire, facilities.

"We are immensely fortunate to have Joe at the helm of The Loudoun Laurels," Kitty Saylor explained. "His love of Loudoun County, his deep understanding of the need for a larger pool of scholarship money to ensure that every Loudoun County senior who aspires to do so has a college education, and his understanding of the value of recording the life's work of individuals who have been true stewards of our community guarantee that the work of The Loudoun Laurels program continues for decades to come."

For interviews & more information, please contact: Glenda Cudaback - gcudaback@yahoo.com - Tel: 703 787 7807