Obituary of Delano Burton May

Mrs. Delano Burton May of Basking Ridge died on Friday October 22nd after a brief illness. She was the daughter of the late Joseph Ashby Burton and Denison Laws of Chatham. A graduate of Smith College in Mathematics she joined IBM in the early days of computer software development, later working for AT&T Bell Laboratories. There she worked on speech recognition systems. One of her accomplishments was the organization and implementation of the Network of the Future showcase of new and pending technologies and services for which she was awarded an Eagle Award. Later she was responsible for field trials of new telephone services and for support of the relay services for the hearing impaired. Over the early years she was a camp counselor, Girl Scout leader, Head Start tutor and active League of Women Voters member. Since retiring from AT&T she has been active in many and varied roles at All Saints' Episcopal Church in Millington serving as a vestry member, warden, lay Eucharistic minister and, most recently, as chair of fund raising including this year's rummage sale. She was a longtime volunteer at the Bernards Township Library where she applied her skills to such tasks as reporting on usage statistics. Another of her roles was as a tutor in the SCEEP program at the Basking Ridge Presbyterian Church. She was an active member of the Oak Tree Quilters and a diligent swimmer at the YMCA. While Delano was petite in stature she was a giant in many ways, especially in her abilities to understand people and their needs and to work with them in harmony. She is survived by Leroy May her husband of many years, a daughter Sarah Rohloff of Green Bay, WI, a son Thomas Admay of Durham, NC and a grand-daughter Caroline Rohloff now a Junior at Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, IL. Also by two brothers: Butler Burton of Mathews, VA and John Burton of South Bend, OR. A memorial service will be held at All Saints' Church - Millington at 1:00 pm Sunday Nov. 7th followed by a reception in the Parish Hall. Burial will be in the family plot at St. George's Episcopal Church, Puncoteague, VA where her grandfather was once Rector.