People in H&S: John C. McCarthy;

              This past November 1 marked the
latest of several recent expansion
moves for the Haskins 6k Sells office in
Boston, and all concerned know it is
only temporary. When the small busi­ness
group shifted to larger quarters on
the thirty-fifth floor of 28 State Street,
the change brought some relief, for a
time, to the busy office five floors
below. Yet even with the increased
elbow room, our Boston colleagues are
keeping a watchful eye on the big
foundation taking shape just across the
street to the east. Good weather, labor
harmony and luck permitting, H&.S
Boston will move into the new forty-story
building to rise above that foun­dation
in the summer of 1977.
No one will be happier to have
increased space in which to operate the
widespread practice centering on the
old Hub of New England than John C.
McCarthy, Boston partner in charge.
Jay, as everyone calls him, is accus­tomed
to moving and he is at home
with the action and growth that go
with upward mobility.
Some of the partners in the Firm
who saw Jay at the September partners
meeting may have wondered about the
replica of an admiral's hat, decorated
with gilt "scrambled eggs" and labeled
"BOSTON PIC," that Jay wore with a
smile during a recreation break on the
golf course. The hat was a gag present
that the Boston office staff gave him at
their 1975 summer outing. It marked
the start of Jay's third year in charge of
the office, following Del Edens'
transfer to Executive Office to assume
responsibility for the Firm's SEC work.
Jay McCarthy's moves with the Firm
have brought him from coast to coast,
west to east. He was born and schooled
in Seattle where his accountant father
was employed as treasurer of the
Washington Athletic Club. "My
parents always called me J.C. and my
brother D.J. I have been called Jay ever
since I was a boy. I graduated from
school in Seattle in 1943, taking the
college preparatory course. Although I
really hadn't made any plans, I was
good in math in school and was think­ing
perhaps of studying engineering.
"With the war, labor was in short
supply, so I worked at the club while
still in school, and I got the chance to
IVoplc
John C<
see how it was run. One day my Dad
asked me if I had ever thought about
studying accounting in college. I asked
him how much college-trained ac­countants
earned. He said that a CPA
could make $200 a month. I thought
that was pretty good, and in those days
it was. Later the same day a woman in
the state accounting office asked me
what I planned to do, and I told her I
thought I'd go into accounting and
become a CPA.
" 'Oh, fine,' she said. 'CPAs can earn
$350 a month!' So I got a raise of $150 a
month in one day!"
Jay's father explained to him that tax
specialists were much in demand and
that if he were to study accounting,
then work with a CPA firm for a few
years, become a CPA and specialize in
taxes, he could then go out on his own.
"That's what I planned—back then,"
Jay recalls with a laugh, "so here I am!"
His gesture sweeps across his corner
office toward the window and out
toward Boston Flarbor and Logan In­ternational
Airport beyond.
Jay got in one year of study at the
University of Washington before he
joined Uncle Sam as an aviation cadet
in September 1944. Following thirteen
months' service as pilot trainee, Jay got
back to the university and graduated in
1948. He joined the West Coast firm of
McLaren, Goode, West & Company in
its Seattle office, starting work there on
the same day as Bob Steele, now ad­ministrative
partner in the New York
practice office of H&S. The merger of
the McLaren firm with H&S took
place in 1952.
"Now I suppose I am about as much
of a generalist as you could find,"Jay
says, recalling the way his goal of be­coming
a tax specialist receded in favor
of the many interests of a general
practice. "Before the merger I did a
good deal of small business work,
which included taxes, and I also did
auditing. Then in the mid-fifties I was
one of a group of H&S managers
selected to take EDP training when the
Firm went into electronic data process­ing
services for MAS clients, but the
pressure of client business precluded
my actually starting on it. I was also
asked to take on recruiting duties in the
Seattle office. I took right to personnel
work and enjoyed it. When Bob Steele
left Seattle to go to Executive Office I
was the manager responsible for re­cruiting."
In the spring of 1960, just after Jay
and his wife Fran had contracted to buy
a new house to accommodate their
growing family of two boys and a little
girl, he received a challenge: What
would he think of transferring to Phil­adelphia?
Jay had been a Seattle boy all
of his thirty-four years, but he did not
hesitate at all. If the Firm thought he
was right for the move, he was ready.
Two years later, in Philadelphia, Jay
became a partner—in a group that
numbered only eight nationally. He
was told at the time that he was the
youngest partner in Haskins & Sells
and that in fact he had been the youn­gest
manager (then called principal)
when promoted five years earlier.
Building on his interest in personnel
work, Jay devoted much of his atten­tion
during his eight years in Philadel­phia
to developing the personnel sys­tem
of the office. And it was doubtless
his success in this field that led to his
being asked in 1968 to transfer to the
San Juan office, where he became
partner in charge in 1969, remaining
until 1972.
In Boston more than three years
now, Jay and Fran have found a new
home. Their two grown sons, J.C., Jr.
and Dan, are both working on the
Pacific Coast. Their elder daughter,
Maureen, is a freshman at Wheaton
College in Massachusetts. Only ten-year-
old Julianne remains at home. On
most days Jay rides the train from
Kendall Green, near Weston, to North
Station, then has a ten-minute walk to
the office. Returning, he usually
catches the 5:30 or the 6:05 train home.
Boston, unlike most American cities,
offers good commuter rail service.
In the office Jay has gained a reputa­tion
for careful, thorough administra­tion.
As one partner put it to H&S
Reports: "Jay is very much concerned
with our hours, with reports of who is
doing what. He wants to analyze what
we are all doing so that we can decide
the best way to spend management
time and energy." At the same time, Jay
is far from an all-work-and-no-play
type. He has encouraged an expanded
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