People in H&S: Charlie Chewning;

              f\ A e e t ' [ ng' getting to know
/ \ / I people and their needs and
I V I helping them is what I enjoy
doing most," says Charlie Chewning.
And this attitude is reflected in every
aspect of the operation of the H&S
Raleigh office, where he is partner in
charge.
Charlie joined the Firm's Charlotte
office in December 1960 after nearly
three years in the Air Force. He
received a B. A. in accounting from
Duke University, where he was active
in the Air Force ROTC program and
was the recipient of the Most Distin­guished
Cadet Award in his senior year.
Upon graduation in 1957, Charlie
decided to pursue his career with a
national accounting firm in New York
City because, he recalls, "1 thought it
was the best place to go to get the most
diversified training in the profession."
After nearly a year in New York,
Charlie was called to active duty as an
officer in the Air Force in which he
served as a navigator on air refueling
tankers in the Strategic Air Command.
"I enjoyed the opportunities for travel
and the responsibility for making
decisions that the Air Force gave me,"
he says. "I was assigned to bases in San
Antonio and Waco, Texas and in
Shreveport, Louisiana and flew numer­ous
missions across the United States
and to Newfoundland and Labrador,
where I also had temporary duty
assignments."
In 1960 Charlie opted for an early
release from the Air Force to return to
public accounting in New York. "I
considered making the military a career
at one time," he recalls, "but realized
that I had not explored public account­ing
fully and that my real interest was
in becoming a certified public account­ant
and working with people in a
number of different industries and
situations." Although Charlie in­tended
to return to New York, after
several weeks of vacation and visiting
with friends and family in North
Carolina, he and his wife Ruth
decided they would settle in North
Carolina and that Charlie would take a
position with a bank or a public
accounting firm.
"I started interviews with national
accounting firms in 1960 by visiting
several with offices in North Carolina.
As was the case in 1957 during campus
interviews at Duke, I was most
impressed with the H&S people I met
in Charlotte and with the large and
diversified clientele of the H&S
Charlotte office," he said. Accepting
the offer to join the H&S Charlotte
professional staff "was an easy decision
and one which has been most satisfying
because of the many opportunities to
work with outstanding clients and for
me and my family to make many new
friends," Charlie recalls. "In 19601 felt
that H&S was the best CPA firm and
now I am convinced that it is. Our
professional attitude, the quality of our
personnel and their constructive
approach to service make the
difference."
Charlie remembers well his first
assignments for H&S in Charlotte. "It
was a quick return to public account­ing.
I was surprised and pleased to be
put in charge of several audits after
only a few months with the Firm," he
said, "and will always be grateful to
Don Williams, now office manager in
Charlotte, for the help he gave me on
my first in-charge assignment."
While in Charlotte, Charlie gained
varied experience in auditing financial
institutions, textile producers, utili­ties,
insurance companies, retail opera­tions,
and different types of manufac­turing
and service companies. He was
in charge of a number of special, acqui­sition
and first audits.
Charlie was appointed manager in
1967 and assumed increased responsi­bility
for our savings and loan practice
in Charlotte. Later that year he became
the manager responsible for five new
S&L clients. In 1969 and again in 1970,
Charlie served as co-administrator of
the Firm's Executive Office Report
Review program in New York City.
Under the program, part of the Firm's
overall quality control effort, partners
and managers from throughout the
Firm review reports issued by our
offices. "My work on the program gave
me a strong appreciation of our
national practice and of the high
quality of our work, as well as expe­rience
with financial statements and
reporting practices in all segments of
our economy," he said.
In early 1970, Bill Stewart, then
partner in charge of the Charlotte
office, asked Charlie if he would take
charge of opening another H&S office
in the Carolinas. "Starting a Raleigh
office," Charlie explains, "was part of
an operating plan formulated in the
early 1960s to increase the number of
H&S offices in the Carolinas. The
objective was to establish full-service
offices in locations near our clients so
we could be more responsive to their
needs while at the same time reducing
travel by our accountants. We now
have seven H&S offices in the
Carolinas, more than any other
national accounting firm.
"Our primary objective in opening
the Raleigh office was to provide our