Dr. George M. May Mitchell - Biography
George M. May, the founder and first president of the Christian University of San Andres and Old Providence, is a native of San Andres Island. His parents, Captain Samuel May and Ariminta May. He is the youngest of six born into this union. His dad was a sea captain and his mother was a homemaker. Life was difficult at times, because his dad was often gone from the home making runs between San Andres Island and the mainland of Colombia.
As a boy, Dr. May received his elementary through high school education at the Baptist School on the island of San Andres. As a teenager, Dr. May loved to climb the stairs up to the steeple of the First Baptist Church to study. At the time of his high school experience, the First Baptist Church was under the leadership of Dr. Charles and Avis McCullough. Mrs. McCullough was Dr. May’s teacher and was very instrumental in helping him complete his high school education and pursuing higher education in the United States.
During World War II, the cargo ship on which George’s father served was torpedoed by a German submarine between the coastal city of Cartagena and the island of San Andres. His brother, Hadley, and an uncle were also killed during that tragic incident.
In 1950, Dr. May left the comfort zone of his home in San Andres in the hopes of entering Wayland Baptist College in Plainview, Texas. Upon his arrival, Dr. May was shocked to discover he was not allowed to enter the school because of racial discrimination existing at the time. He then traveled to Nashville, TN and attended ABT Seminary. While in Nashville, he received a call from Dr. Bill Marshall, President of Wayland Baptist College, asking him to return the following year. In 1954, Dr. May received his bachelor’s degree and became the first black student to graduate from Wayland.
Upon his graduation, Dr. May returned to his beloved island to marry his sweetheart, the former Virginia Stephens, and to pastor First Baptist Church (the oldest evangelical church in all Latin America) for the first time. The Mays attended the International Baptist Seminary in Cali, Colombia. Dr. May received his Master of Divinity Degree. After returning to San Andres, the Mays were called to pastor the First Baptist Church for the second time. While attending seminary in Cali, the Mays were blessed with three daughters, Fanny, Lorene and Maxine. Today the Mays are blessed to have four grandchildren, Fandenia, Dennis II, Devin and Trenton, and three great-grandsons, Carson Greigg, Chase and Cai Jemesson.
In 1967, he received his Master of Divinity degree from International Baptist Seminary in Cali, Colombia, South America. His other post-graduate education includes graduate studies at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio from 1960-1970.
May served as Minister of Education at Mr. Pisgah Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas from 1966-1969. He was pastor of Lakeside Baptist Church in East Cleveland, Ohio from 1969-1972. He served as pastor of South Park Baptist Church in Houston, Texas from 1972-1992, during which time he built lasting relationships with other church leaders, community leaders, organizations and businessmen and women in the city. To help keep children in the community off the streets, he built a church gymnasium. To assist with instilling pride in homeowners in the area and to help beautify the neighborhood, he was instrumental in organizing the Androver-Southview Civic Association. He organized street, jail, and apartment ministries. While in Houston, George May was one of the founding members of the Martin Luther King Credit Union which has been beneficial in the financial growth and development of people in South Park and Sunnyside communities. Also, he served on the Credit Union’s board from 1987-1992.
In 1986, while serving as a trustee of the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor, May had a vision for higher education for his people. With his vision came a passion that his own people would have the training necessary to compete in today’s world and beyond. Motivated by this yearning to see the young people of his native island have the educational opportunities he had been privileged to enjoy, May returned to San Andres Island, Colombia, South America in 1992. In answer to a special call to bring higher education to his homeland, May started the Christian University of San Andres & Providence. It is his vision that San Andres will become a center of Christian influence and higher education for Afro-Caribbeans in that area of the world.
Dr. May retired from South Park Baptist Church in 1992. It was not until 1993, when he returned to the island to pastor for a third time, that the vision became much clearer, and the need to pursue higher education for the youth of San Andres became his passion. After serving as pastor for a short time, Dr. May’s vision became his main focus. In 1998, the Christian University opened its doors and operated until 2003. During this time, approximately, 70 students received certificate of completion. In addition, several students were able to study English, Science, Biblical studies, and other subjects necessary to assist in obtaining jobs.
Dr. May has been instrumental in bringing professors, and raising funds for the university during his tenure as the first president and founder of the Christian University.
In 2015, due to health failure, Dr. May and his wife, were persuaded by family and friends to return to Houston, Texas where they have been cared for by their loving family. On May 12th, 2022, Dr. May peacefully was called home by his heavenly father surrounded by his beautiful family. Dr. May precious family will always live in the hearts of this loving people of the archipelago of San Andres, Old Providence and Kethlina.
Rev. Dr. George Montgomery May received his name in remembrance to his family relative, General George Montgomery Hodgson May (1884-1927), who was one of our heroes from the 1920s. Dr. George M. May born few months after the death of General George M. Hodgson. General George M. Hodgson is known for having raised the collective voice of human dignity and respect for the human rights demanded by the native population of Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast, the Miskitu Indians, and Afro-descendant communities, in a context of national political turmoil. He did so by articulating a critical opinion, contributing to civic organizing, and leading a grassroots armed rebellion against the Nicaraguan government.
Rev. Dr. George M. May’s father was Captain Samuel May Corpus (1889-1942), who was also a national and local hero. Captain Samuel May enlists as a volunteer and along with 47 island sailors arrive in southern Colombia to support the troops facing the Peruvian invasion. Samuel May was captain of the Pichincha ship that fought in the battle of Tarapacá against Peru in 1933. After this action, he was declared a national hero), when going on Roamar ship from San Andres Island to look for food for the people in the Archipelago, in the mid of the Second World War (July 22nd, 1942), it happened that one of the submarines (American or German) out there in war sink the ship; Captain Samuel May and other members of his family and all who were on the boat died.
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