In memoriam

Tax Executive, The, Nov, 1999 by Thomas O'Brien

ROSCOE L. EGGER, Jr., 79, Commissioner of Internal from 1981 to 1986 and recipient of TEI's Distinguished Service Award in 1986, died Oct. 14 following heart surgery at the Mayo Clinic.

Mr. Egger was a partner in the accounting firm of Price Waterhouse before and after his IRS service. As Commissioner, he helped draft the Tax Reform Act of 1986, which included legislation to simplify the tax code. He was also a proponent of IRS computer modernization. When problems hit the IRS in 1985 -- millions of returns were lost and it took far longer to process refunds than it had in the past -- he responded by increasing the number of computers at some Service Centers by up to 50 percent and boosting the number of central computers in operation across the country. In a 1990 interview, Mr. Egger noted that the IRS's computer systems were still inadequate, and needed to be changed from the ground up.

Mr. Egger was a native of Jackson, Michigan, and a graduate of Indiana University. He received a law degree from George Washington University after serving in the Army in Europe during World War II. He received a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. Before and after serving as Commissioner, Mr. Egger was a partner with Price Waterhouse.

SINGLETON B. WOLFE, former IRS Assistant Commissioner for Compliance and recipient of TEI's Distinguished Service Award in 1980, passed away November 11. He was 80. "Sing" Wolfe began his IRS career as a revenue agent in Knoxville, Tennessee, shortly after World War II. In 1975, IRS Commissioner Donald C. Alexander named Wolfe to be the agency's top compliance officer -- "one of the best appointments I was ever responsible for," Alexander later said. In between, Mr. Wolfe built a reputation as a savvy technical tax man and humanist who never lost sight of the fact that there were faces and lives behind those tax returns.

In 1980, during an interview that appeared in the Legal Times of Washington, Mr. Wolfe recounted a story about a taxpayer in Atlanta whose case he became involved in --

   Seems that the IRS office down in Atlanta, eight or 10 years ago, was
   helping a farmer trying to claim a casualty loss after a hurricane.
   Reciting the appropriate regulations, officials wrote, "Do you know what
   the fair market value of your property was just before the hurricane?"

   "Of course I do," the farmer wrote back. "The fair market value just before
   the hurricane was zero. Who'd buy a farm in the path of a hurricane?"

Mr. Wolfe accepted TEI's Distinguished Service Award at the Institute's Annual Conference in Vancouver. Shortly after, in a letter to TEI Executive Director William L. Lynch, Mr. Wolfe wrote, "I can't begin to tell you how honored I was to receive the TEI Distinguished Service Award. It was truly a thrill for me and I will always cherish it.... I could never forget the fine contribution you and your staff have made to the organization and to the amicable relationship between TEI and the IRS. I feel that I am indebted indeed. Thank you for the great honor you have bestowed upon me."

ARTHUR S. GOLDBERG, an associate member and 1972-1973 president of TEI's New England Chapter, died recently in Newton, Massachusetts. He was 81. Mr. Goldberg joined Gold Seal Rubber Company in 1957 and retired as the company's Treasurer and Tax Manager in 1990. Prior to joining Gold Seal, he had served for a decade as an IRS revenue agent in the Boston area. Mr. Goldberg joined TEI in 1963.

THOMAS J. O'BRIEN, an associate member and former president of the Philadelphia Chapter, and former Region III Vice President, died on September 14 at the age of 75. Mr. O'Brien retired from the Consolidated Rail Corporation in 1987 as its Director of Corporate Taxes. He was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. Mr. O'Brien joined TEI in 1971.