Reminiscences of a past president

Tax Executive, The, Jan-Feb, 2005

William Horne served as TEI's 1968-1969 International President. Mr. Horne, who was elected to Honorary Membership in 1983, attended the 2004 Annual Conference in New Orleans with his wife, Alice, and submitted the following reminiscences.

I first heard of TEI in 1953. As a young tax attorney on the staff of Congress's Joint Committee on Taxation, I was helping to draft the 1954 Internal Revenue Code. The Joint Committee staff would meet with various taxpayer groups to hear their recommendations for changes in the tax laws. In that capacity, I met several times with Ream Miller [TEI's 1963-1964 President] and other members of TEI's New York Chapter.

In 1957 I joined Olin Corporation (then Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation), first as Tax Counsel and later as Director of the Tax Department. I soon became affiliated with TEI's New York Chapter. Subsequently, I became chairman of TEI's Publications Committee. At the time, the principal publication of TEI was The Tax Executive, then a small quarterly that featured articles on changes in corporate tax law, written by tax lawyers and CPAs. For a period, we hired two Washington, D.C., tax lawyers to edit the publication. When difficulties arose with that arrangement, I served for a time as the de facto editor of the magazine.

In 1964 I left New York City and Olin to become Vice President-Taxes for Commercial Credit Company in Baltimore. I changed my TEI affiliation to the Baltimore-Washington Chapter and later became president of the chapter. At the national level, I continued to serve as chairman of the Publications Committee until being elected as Institute Vice President in 1967-1968 and then as President in 1968-1969. My immediate predecessor, Charlie Gephardt, and I were both very interested in promoting education of young Tax Department personnel. We instituted the first Federal Tax Seminar for TEI personnel in the late 1960s, followed shortly by our first State and Local Tax Seminar.

When I returned to private practice in 1970, I had to relinquish my membership in TEI, but I retained my affection for, and interest in, the organization.

Later when I returned to the corporate arena as Senior Vice President and General Tax Counsel of Citicorp (now Citigroup) and Citibank, N.A., I encouraged my tax staff to join TEI. By that time, I was chairman of the Tax Committee of Financial Executives Institute and active in several other organizations, including the American Bankers Association. With these other commitments, I did not believe that I could devote enough time to TEI to justify my membership, but I continued to follow TEI's progress and growth. I took pride in the small contribution that I made to TEI's becoming the premier corporate tax organization. I continue to do so today.