WILLIAM HENRY MAYS

William Henry Mays was born in England and received his early education there. In 1893 he graduated from the University of California Department of Medicine. Before coming to the Islands, he held a number of important positions among which were: Superintendent of the California State Asylum, member of the San Francisco Board of Health, professor in the Department of Medicine at his Alma Mater, and gynecological surgeon on the staff at St. Luke's Hospital in San Francisco from 1890 to 1900. At one time he was also an associate editor of the "San Francisco News Letter", a weekly publication.

Dr. Mays arrived in Honolulu on August 2, 1900, aboard the S.S. "Australia" and was followed very shortly by Mrs. Mays. By the 29th. of that month he had leased a residence on Beretania Street and in September opened an office there.

In April of the Following year he was appointed a member of a committee of the Hawaiian Territorial Medical Society to draft a resolution to Governor Dole requesting him to veto the anti-vaccination bill then pending in the Legislature, a measure which was later defeated. In July, 1902, Dr. Mays was named attending staff physician at the Queen's Hospital, and in January, 1903, Governor Dole appointed him to the Board of Health. A few months later when the Board was reorganized with two medical members rather than three, Dr. Mays was confirmed by the Senate as one of the two doctors. Outstanding among his many services to the Board of Health was the set of rules for the running of government hospitals which he drafted and which the Board adopted. In October, 1903, he was appointed acting superintendent of the Insane Asylum until the new director could arrive. During the following year when the Legislature failed to grant any funds to pay the salaries of the government physicians, Dr. Mays enlisted doctors on a voluntary basis so that the dispensary could be kept open. He was also a member of the Board of Examining Physicians for the Kalihi Receiving Station where patients suspected of leprosy were sent.

On November 27, 1906, Dr. Mays left Honolulu to locate permanently in California. For several years he was in practice in Oakland and then moved to a ranch in Sonoma County, California, his wife's ancestral home, and opened an office in the adjoining town of Newman.

Dr. Mays died at Newman on November 30, 1919, at the age of 73. He was survived by his wife, Catherine E., and two sons by a previous marriage, Kenneth and Noel.

While the doctor was in Honolulu, he was a member of the Hawaiian Territorial Medical Society and of the Pacific Club.

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