People in H&S: Bob Arnett..Kansas City;

              Bob Arnett..Kansas City
Robert D. Arnett is partner in charge
of the Firm's Kansas City office.
Watching him as he works, it is difficult
to imagine that he was ever a shirt­sleeve
staff accountant. Bob has
earned a reputation around the Firm
for his impeccable taste in clothing.
This is how I work," he explains of the
omnipresent jacket. But while his
appearance is definitely on the formal
side, Bob is relaxed and casual as he
looks out on the city's dazzling new
Crown Center complex and chats about
his shirt-sleeve days with the Firm and
the circumstances leading him to the
top job in Kansas City and recognition
as the Firm's coordinator for air
transportation industry matters.
BobArnettisaCalifornian by birth,
and the trail that took him to Kansas
City is a meandering one. "My father
was a Texan who moved to San
Francisco," says Bob. "When I was
very young, the family moved to
Seattle where my father was a partner
in another of the Big Eight accounting
firms. I really loved growing up in the
Seattle area, with the hunting and
boating and fishing and other activities
that make the Northwest such a great
place to live. I had put down deep
roots there, and just couldn't imagine
ever leaving."
With accounting and the Northwest
in his blood, it is natural that Bob
graduated from the University of
Washington, where he majored in
accounting. He detoured east only
long enough to pick up a master's
degree in business administration at
the Harvard Graduate School of
BusinessAdministration, then returned
to the Coast to join the redwood
division of a lumber company. He
worked in the plant for a while, then
was given his own sprawling sales
territory. He soon tired of the
salesman's life, however, and decided
to return to accounting.
'Lorin Wilson was partner in charge
of the Seattle office then, and his
contagious enthusiasm and vigor was
what attracted me to Haskins & Sells.
He hired me there in 19551' Bob recalls.
I n 1956, Bob had the opportunity to
attend a nine-week computer course
offered by the Fi rm. "There were about
twenty-five people in the group," Bob
remembers, "and nine of them, like
Joe Healy, partner in charge of the
Philadelphia office, are now partners
or directors in the Firm." After taking
the course, Bob was to become more
and more involved in MAS work in the
Seattle office. He transferred to the
MAS division in 1957. He says that one
of his most interesting clients was the
Seattle World's Fair, for which he did
systems design and control work in 1962.
In 1965, Bob left H&S to join a client,
Northern Commercial Company as
corporate controller. The company
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