Distinguished service award winner: Gale Case

California CPA, June, 2004

For a career devoted to the betterment of the accounting profession, Gale Case is CalCPA's 2004 Distinguished Service Award winner.

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Case's career is colored by numerous contributions to the profession, including a lengthy stint as a member of the AICPA Governing Council since 1993.

Case served as CalCPA's president from 1995-96, as well as president of CalCPA's Los Angeles Chapter from 1991-92. A CPA and certified fraud examiner, Case is chair of the California Nonprofit Quality Reporting Collaborative.

"Gale represents the fairness, integrity and professionalism that so many of us aspire to," says Mike Ueltzen, chair of the Distinguished Service Award Committee. "At a time of turmoil, Gale will step forward with a calm, unbiased analysis. The Distinguished Service Award was created to recognize the achievements of people like Gale Case."

Case has been invaluable to the Group Insurance Trust since it evolved from a CalCPA committee into a separate entity in 1997.

"Gale initially captured, and has subsequently held, the unanimous respect, trust and affection of all of the other trustees, who have annually re-elected him as their chairman," says John Phillips, executive director of the GIT.

Accolades are nothing new to Case. The Los Angeles Business Journal has twice honored Case and named him the 1995 Executive of the Year in Accounting.

The youngest of nine children, Case was born at home in Washington state Dec. 18, 1940. After high school, he served two years in the Navy. Upon his return home, he attended the University of Washington and worked as an editor for Boeing's publications unit.

Case passed the CPA Exam as a college junior and his high visibility as the president of Beta Alpha Psi earned him job offers from seven of the then Big Eight firms. He settled on Haskins & Sells in Seattle, working as a senior accountant from 1967-73.

But in 1973, Case's career took a sharp turn when he decided to study divinity at the Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena. After earning a master's degree in divinity, he became the pastor at the Congregational Church of Chatsworth. He left that position after four years to renew his focus on accounting.

Case spent the next decade as a partner at Alper & Case CPAs, then become senior vice president and shareholder with Beverly Hills-based Ozur Andersen & Radder A/C.

Case is a principal at Rothstein, Kass & Company, P.C.

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