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PROPOSED RESOLUTION
HONORING MR. DAVID KELLY AS A TRAILBLAZING HISTORY MAKER IN THE ACCOUNTING PROFESSION
WHEREAS, David Kelly was born May 7, 1938, in Chicago, Illinois; and
WHEREAS, in 1960, after 3 and one-half years of college, David received his bachelor's degree in business from Roosevelt University, and in 1962, David became the 76th African American to pass the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) examination and become a Certified Public Accountant and the first in his family; and
WHEREAS, in 1960, David married Sandra McKendrick Kelly and they have four children; and
WHEREAS, over sixty years later, the Kelly-Williams Family has six CPAs across three generations. It is believed that the family has more CPAs than any other African American family in the country; and
WHEREAS, for seven years, David was an Internal Revenue agent in Chicago and, as an instructor, he was responsible for that office hiring the first black female Internal Revenue agent; and
WHEREAS, in 1967, David earned his Juris Doctor degree from Loyola University School of Law (Alpha Sigma Nu Jesuit National Honor Society) and joined the tax department of the Chicago office of Arthur Andersen & Co., the world's largest CPA partnership; and
WHEREAS, with his admission as a partner in 1976, he became the first African American to come up through the ranks and be admitted as a partner in any of the then Big Eight accounting firms; and
WHEREAS, David's client responsibilities included consulting with and representing publicly traded companies and providing expert witness testimony and business valuation services; and
WHEREAS, in 1992, David joined NiSource, a Fortune 500 utility company, where during his 11-year career, he held positions including Corporate Tax Counsel, Vice President, CFO and President of a subsidiary group that included the Indianapolis Water Company; and
WHEREAS, at the water company, David served as a change agent, facilitating the transition of upper managem...
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