"Mary-Washington" (April 21,1906-July 14,2005)

Born in Vicksburgh Mississippi,Mary Thelma Morrison was the daughter of Daisy &

William Morrison,a carpenter,who boasted to friends that his young daughter could read the entire newspaper.When she was 6,her mama died,and she went to Chicago to live with her maternal grandparents.She attended Wendell Philllips High School,where she excelled in math.After graduating from High School,Mary took a position at Binga State Bank,one of only a few African-American owned banks in the 1920s.Arthur Wilson,the banks president and Mary's supervisor,took note of her bookkeeping skills and encouraged her to pursue her business degree.Arthur himself was an accomplished CPA,having the notable distinction of being only the second African-American in the United States to earn his CPA in 1923.

When she attended Northwestern University's School of Chicago Business in the late 1930s,Mary found that she was the only woman in the program,and certainly the only African American female student.Being light-skinned,she was easily accepted as white,as Mary's daughter,Barbara Shepherd,a retired Chicago Public School teacher,explained.Mary began building her tax-season clientele in 1939,and focused on serving the community of small African American-owned businesses in her area.One of early and long-time clients was Samuel B.Fuller,a self-made millionaire and owner of the cosmetics company Fuller Products Company.Samuel came to rely heavily on Mary's services and advice,and later leased some of his businesses office space to her to accommodate her growing business.Mary earned her degree in 1941 and was able to serve her apprenticeship with Arthur Wilson.When she sat for the CPA licensing exam,again,and she was the only woman in the room.

In 1943 she became the nation's 13th African-American CPA,and the first female of the group to attain her license,Mary became a leader for future generations of accounts.The firm she she began in her basement on the South Side of Chicago in 1939,known to day as Washington,Pittman & Mckeever,remains one of the largest African-American owned firms in the nation.As time went by,Mary fostered the development of Young African-American CPAs who needed to serve apprenticeships to earn their CPA licenses.Hiring was typically done through references from friends and associates.Frederick Ford,currently the vice chairman of the board at Draper & Kramer,the Chicago-based real estate firm,came to Mary looking to serve his apprenticeship in 1949."None of the big CPA firms would hire African-American,Ms.Washington offered to let me come and work.She really opened the way for a number of blacks CPAs," Since 1921 (University of North Carolina Press,2002,),aspiring young accounts would move across the country to have the opportunity to work for Ms.Washington.As a result of her generosity,by the late 1960s,Chicago was recognized as having the largest number of African-Americans CPAs of any in the nation,most of who served the city's significant African-American community.

In Chicago's tight-knit African-American accounting community of the 1950s & 1960s,Mary was certainly a leading figure,having been associated with nearly every African American CPA through one channel for another.To draw the community more closely together,Mary threw annual holiday parties at her home,inviting her own employees and the rest of the city's achieving African American CPAs to the event as well as clients,many of whom remained lifelong friends and professional admirers.Lester Mckeever,Washington,Pittman,& Mckeever's current managing partner and principal and former chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago,came to work for Ms.Washington part-time during the busy tax season,and while away from the army.When he was called back,Ms.Washington petitioned for his early release from service,was denied.And when his time in the Army  was up,he returned to work at the firm full-time;it came to be known by today's name in 1976.


Thanks to Ms.Washington long-time leadership the firm she established and that Lester continues to uphold,now audits some of the largest accounts in the area;it is a joint auditor for the City of  Chicago and Cook County,for example,audits several area universities,including Chicago State University and Western Illinois University,and handles the employee benefit plans for electric utility company Commonwealth Edison and printer RR Donnelly.