Cordelia Scaife May (September 24, 1928 – January 26, 2005) was a

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

-area political donor and philanthropist. An heiress to the Mellon-Scaife family fortune, she was one of the wealthiest women in the United States. Her philanthropy and political causes included

environmentalism Environmentalism or environmental rights is a broad philosophy, ideology, and social movement regarding concerns for environmental protection and improvement of the health of the environment, particularly as the measure for this health seeks ...

, birth control and family planning,

overpopulation Overpopulation or overabundance is a phenomenon in which a species' population becomes larger than the carrying capacity of its environment. This may be caused by increased birth rates, lowered mortality rates, reduced predation or large scal ...

control measures, making English the official language of the United States, and strict immigration restrictions to the United States. According to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', "she bankrolled the founding and operation of the nation’s three largest restrictionist groups—the

Federation for American Immigration Reform The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) is a non profit, anti-immigration organization in the United States. The group publishes position papers, organizes events, and runs campaigns in order to advocate for changes in U.S. immig ...

NumbersUSA NumbersUSA is an anti-immigrationExplaining 'Chain Migration'

and the

Center for Immigration Studies The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) is an anti-immigration think tank and a SPLC designated hate group. It favors far lower immigration numbers, and produces analyses to further those views. The CIS was founded by historian Otis L. Grah ...

," and she left the bulk of her assets to the Colcom Foundation, whose major activity has been the sponsorship of immigration restriction. May lived a reclusive life, especially after the death of her second husband in 1974.

Biography

Early life and education

On September 24, 1928, May was born as Cordelia Mellon Scaife in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. May's father was Alan Magee Scaife and her mother was Sarah Cordelia Mellon Scaife. May's maternal grandfather was Richard B. Mellon. May is the grand-niece of

Andrew W. Mellon Andrew William Mellon (; March 24, 1855 – August 26, 1937), sometimes A. W. Mellon, was an American banker, businessman, industrialist, philanthropist, art collector, and politician. From the wealthy Mellon family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylv ...

. May and her brother

Richard Mellon Scaife Richard Mellon Scaife (; July 3, 1932 – July 4, 2014) was an American billionaire, a principal heir to the Mellon banking, oil, and aluminum fortune, and the owner and publisher of the ''Pittsburgh Tribune-Review''. In 2005, Scaife was n ...

grew up at the family estate in Ligonier, Pennsylvania. May attended Foxcroft School, a boarding school for girls. According to May, her childhood was largely unhappy; her "eccentric" mother Sarah was "just a gutter drunk" who let nannies do the work in raising her. May attended Carnegie Institute of Technology, now known as Carnegie Mellon University, and the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the univers ...

briefly, but left school to get married.

Personal life

On June 30, 1949, Cordelia Scaife married Herbert A. May Jr. The marriage lasted only a few months; they soon divorced. After May's divorce, she resumed a childhood friendship with Robert Duggan. However, they were unable to be married for a long period of time, as both their families disapproved. To the wealthy and Protestant Mellons, Duggan was a lower-class Catholic beneath the family's stature; to Duggan's family, May was a divorcee ineligible for a Catholicism-sanctioned marriage. On August 29, 1973, Duggan and May secretly civilly married in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Duggan was by then the

Allegheny County District Attorney The Allegheny County District Attorney is the elected district attorney for Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. The office is responsible for the prosecution of violations of Pennsylvania commonwealth laws. (Federal law violations are p ...

of Pennsylvania. The marriage was kept secret at first, but eventually leaked to the press. Duggan was under federal investigation by United States Attorney Dick Thornburgh for allegations of racketeering and corruption. On March 5, 1974, he was found dead of gun shot wounds hours before being indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of income tax evasion. His death was ruled a likely suicide, but May maintained that he was murdered. The incident resulted in May falling out with her brother Richard, and by extension the family advisors that were shared between her and the family, as she came to the belief that her brother was somehow responsible for the death. Afterward, May lived reclusively, corresponding mostly by mail with new friends such as the activist

John Tanton John Hamilton Tanton (February 23, 1934 – July 16, 2019) was an American ophthalmologist, white nationalist and anti-immigration activist. He was the founder and first chairman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), an anti- ...

Death

On January 26, 2005, May died at her home, Cold Comfort Farm, in Ligonier Township, Pennsylvania at age 76, and was cremated. The cause of death was suicide by asphyxiation after a struggle with pancreatic cancer. She was survived by her estranged brother Richard, with whom she had partially reconciled in 1999.

Political and philanthropic donations

May made charitable donations to land conservation, watershed protection, environmental education, and population causes.Pro, Johnna A. and Pitz, Marylynne, "Obituary: Cordelia Scaife May"
''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', January 27, 2005. When her mother died in 1965, May inherited a sizable portion of the Mellon fortune. She would distribute tens of millions of dollars to charity through the Laurel Foundation, Colcom Foundation (established 1996), and directly, most on the condition her name not be revealed. Most of the Colcom Foundation's donations go to anti-immigration causes. May was routinely listed on the Forbes list of the wealthiest Americans; in 2004, the year before her death, she had a net worth of $825 million and was #363 on Forbes' list of wealthiest Americans. In 1951, May established Laurel Foundation, a private foundation based in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. In 1996, May established Colcom Foundation. May served as the chairman of both foundations until her death in 2005. In the year 1972, May was the single largest contributor to candidates running for Congress. In 2005, the year of her death, May gave more to charity than any other individual in the United States. Her charitable donations for the year were almost one-tenth of the $4.3 billion donated by the nation's leading philanthropists.

Pittsburgh area initiatives

May's largesse helped fund a number of projects in the Pittsburgh area, including the Pittsburgh National Aviary, the

Montour Trail The Montour Trail is a multi-use recreational rail trail near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was formerly the Montour Railroad. It has a mostly crushed limestone with partially asphalt surface, appropriate for bicycling, walking, running, and cross ...

, the Riverlife Task Force, the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, and the Women's Center & Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh.

Population control

May became aware of overpopulation issues in childhood, when she was introduced to the work of Margaret Sanger by her grandmother. By 1952 she began to activel
address national population issues
There is a bust of Margaret Sanger in the National Portrait Gallery which was a gift from May. By 1974, she had resigned from Planned Parenthood, based on her view that family planning was a waste of money in the presence of massive immigration.

Anti-immigration

May opposed immigration. She argued the United States was "being invaded on all fronts" by immigrants who "breed like hamsters" and exhaust America's resources. Her anti-immigration activism began in the 1970s. May's contributions, both directly and through her foundations, have principally funded anti-immigrant initiatives, including the

(FAIR), the

, the

American Immigration Control Foundation American Immigration Control Foundation (AIC Foundation) is an American political group that campaigns to reduce immigration to the United States, particularly from developing countries and countries in Central and South America. It is a large publ ...

Californians for Population Stabilization Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS) is a non-profit California organization founded in 1986 which works to "preserve California's future through the stabilization of our state's human population". CAPS was the former Californian branch ...

, the California Center for Immigration Reform, and

Numbers USA NumbersUSA is an anti-immigrationExplaining 'Chain Migration'

. The Center for Immigration Studies is listed as a hate group by the

Southern Poverty Law Center The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is known for its legal cases against white s ...

. The ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' reported that Scaife May was the single largest donor to anti-immigrant causes and "An ardent environmentalist more comfortable with books and birds than with high-society galas, May believed nature was under siege from runaway population growth. Before her death in 2005, she devoted much of her wealth to rolling back the tide--backing birth control and curbing immigration, both legal and illegal." The ''Times'' also wrote that May donated $200,000 to conservative columnist

Samuel T. Francis Samuel Todd Francis (April 29, 1947 – February 15, 2005), known as Sam Francis, was an American columnist and writer. He was a columnist and editor for the conservative ''Washington Times'' until he was dismissed after making racist remarks at ...

, who called for a halt to all immigration and who opposes the mixing of the races. May also supported English-only movements, guided by

. Originally that was through the group

U.S. English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances ...

, which successfully lobbied for an

Arizona ballot proposition A ballot proposition in the U.S. state, state of Arizona refers to any legislation brought before the voters of the state for approval. In common usage, the term generally applies to the method of Constitutional amendment, amending either the s ...

to conduct all state business in English. After Tanton was kicked out of the group for memos that endorsed

eugenics Eugenics ( ; ) is a fringe set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter human gene pools by excluding people and groups judged to be inferior o ...

and denounced a "Latin onslaught", Tanton founded a new group,

ProEnglish ProEnglish is an American nonprofit lobbying organization that is part of the English-only movement.Domenico MaceriMultilingualism: Americans are embracing Spanish ''International Herald Tribune'' (June 24, 2003). The group supports making Englis ...

. May helped be a prominent funder for ProEnglish, keeping with Tanton. According to Roger Conner, the first chairman of FAIR, "John

anton Anton may refer to: People *Anton (given name), including a list of people with the given name *Anton (surname) Places *Anton Municipality, Bulgaria **Anton, Sofia Province, a village *Antón District, Panama **Antón, a town and capital of th ...

became the one who would carry her legacy forward the way a son or a daughter would... John assured her what she believed in her life would carry on. She also funded the republication and distribution of the dystopian novel ''

The Camp of the Saints ''The Camp of the Saints'' (french: Le Camp des Saints) is a 1973 French dystopian fiction novel by author and explorer Jean Raspail. A speculative fictional account, it depicts the destruction of Western civilization through Third World mass im ...

'' in 1983, a novel popular among the far right and widely described as racist by critics; the

has compared it to ''

The Turner Diaries ''The Turner Diaries'' is a 1978 novel by William Luther Pierce, published under the pseudonym Andrew Macdonald. It depicts a violent revolution in the United States which leads to the overthrow of the federal government, a nuclear war, and, ...

''.