Michael Eagan May, PhD, MD passed away peacefully on May 17, 2025 at Alive Hospice in Nashville, TN, 16 months following a diagnosis of metastatic stomach cancer. He was 74. He was born on August 30, 1950 in Lafayette, LA to the late Alexander May and Shirley Eagan May and was the fourth of their nine children.
Michael grew up in Mobile, AL and graduated high school from McGill Institute. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from Spring Hill College and his PhD and MD degrees from the Medical University of South Carolina College of Medicine. He completed an internal medicine residency at Baylor College of Medicine and a fellowship in endocrinology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, after which he joined the faculty of the Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. At Vanderbilt Michael participated in the Diabetes Control and Complications Trial and the follow-up EDIC (Epidemiology of Diabetes Interventions and Complications) study and was the investigator for various clinical trials. He was a certified diabetes educator and cared for endocrine and general medicine patients at Vanderbilt and the VA Hospital. He said he would always put his patients first and their families second. He helped train numerous fellows and was a respected clinician and educator.
He was a loving father who attended art shows and basketball, soccer, softball, and baseball games for his children. He greatly enjoyed teaching them chess, scrabble, and various card and board games. His love extended to the next generation, and he adored cuddling his grandbabies. He was an avid softball player and pitched for the Vanderbilt Raging Hormones and Cathedral Cardinals teams. He had eclectic tastes in books, movies, and music and greatly enjoyed cooking, regarding the latter as a practical extension of chemistry. He was fascinated by what we have yet to figure out.
He is survived by Estelle, his beloved wife of 48 years; their five children, including Patrick Way (Jenny), Silvia Smith (Nick), Stephen May (Mai), Brian May (Christy) , and Mark May (Katherine); their eleven grandchildren, including Isaac, Samuel and Nathan Smith, Felix Way, Emerson, Finnley and Penelope May, Stella and Kobe May, and Audrey and Jacqueline May; his siblings, including Dorothy Barker Dagen, Helen May, Lloyd May, Theresa Saxon, Walter May, Shirley Savino, Joseph May, and Edward May; and eighteen nieces and nephews. Michael was preceded in death by his parents, his in-laws Anna and James Marion Eargle, and his brothers-in-law James Joseph Eargle and Daniel Dagen.
Michael’s family is very grateful to the nurses and aides who cared for him at Alive Hospice with compassion and love.
A service to celebrate Michael’s life will be held at 2 pm, Saturday, May 31, 2025 at the Roswell Funeral Home—950 Mansell Rd, Roswell, GA 30076. Visitation will be held from 1 to 2 pm at the funeral home. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Alive Hospice or Breakthrough T1D (formerly known as the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation).
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