Rudin May

May Rudin, philanthropist and matriarch of one of Manhattan's real-estate dynasties, died yesterday at her East Side home. She was 95 years old.

She died after a brief illness, her family said.

A native of New York City, she was one of seven children born to immigrant parents. May Cohen dropped out of high school at the age of 15 and enrolled in a business school to study typing, stenography, bookkeeping and commercial law. She then went to work as a bookkeeper.

In 1923, she married Samuel Rudin, who four years later founded Rudin Management, realtors and builders, whose holdings now comprise dozens of tall buildings. The buildings, assembled over 60 years, were valued at $1.5 billion by analysts two years ago.

When Mr. Rudin died in 1975, his will established the Samuel and May Rudin Foundation, of which Mrs. Rudin was the chairwoman at her death. Well into her 90's, she played an active part in its disbursements, which at last count, in 1990, came to 222 grants totaling $5.3 million. Sponsors of the Marathon

The foundation primarily supported education, social and religious welfare agencies, hospitals and health associations as well as museums and the performing arts. The money was spent mostly in Manhattan, where the Rudins' assets are concentrated.

The Rudins also were the first business sponsors of the New York City Marathon. From its inauguration in 1976 until 1990, May Rudin waited at the finish line each year to present the Samuel Rudin Trophy to the man and woman who broke the tape. Her husband, she noted, was keen on long-distance running well before it became fashionable.

Foundation beneficiaries included St. Vincent's Hospital School of Nursing, AIDS-related programs, Phoenix House and St. Luke's-Roosevelt Medical Center to public-school children, Lincoln Center and New York University, where the foundation endowed a chair in the humanities.

Mrs. Rudin is survived by her sons Jack and Lewis, respectively the chairman and the president of the family business, both residents of Manhattan; five grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.