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William Donaldson, CPA, JD and Sidney Kess, CPA, JD
Named To NYSSCPA Hall of Fame

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Lois Whitehead, Public Relations Manager
212-719-8405
lwhitehead@nysscpa.org

NEW YORK, NY, March 17, 2009 -- The New York State Society of Certified Public Accountants (NYSSCPA) named William Donaldson, CPA, JD (posthumously) and Sidney Kess, CPA, JD of New York City to its Hall of Fame. The NYSSCPA established the Hall of Fame in 2000 and inducts CPAs for their demonstrated leadership, impact and distinguished service in and out of the profession.

In nominating William Donaldson (deceased 1967), David A. Lifson, NYSSCPA Past President cited his leadership as the organization’s president from 1945-46, as chairman of eleven NYSSCPA committees, as a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Council, as Deputy Comptroller of the City of New York, for his selection on a state Comptroller’s advisory board and for his charitable work for the Boys’ Club of America.

Donaldson joined the NYSSCPA in 1922 and was president from 1945-46. He also served as a member of the board of directors, secretary, second vice-president and first vice-president. He was president for two years of the Accountants Club of America, president of the New York Chapter of the National Association of Cost Accountants and was National Director in Charge of Research and Chairman of the National Business Year Council.

He was a partner with Crafts, Carr and Donaldson and a CPA in New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut as well as a member of the Federal and New York Bars. He was director of the Boys’ Club for 27 years, serving for 10 as its president.

He was a trustee of the Kings County Savings Bank, a member of the Downtown Association and of the Knights of Columbus and was a former member of the board of governors of the Crescent Athletic Club of Brooklyn and Huntington, Long Island. In 1946 he was appointed to the board of trustees of St. Francis College and served until his death on its budget and finance committee. In 1948, the college awarded him an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. He was founder and first president of the Catholic Accountants Guild of the Diocese of Brooklyn.

He received his law degree from Fordham University.

Sidney Kess has been a member of the NYSSCPA for 50 years. He has conducted workshops on individual tax returns for more than 720,000 practitioners in 47 states over the past 42 years.

In nominating Sidney Kess, Mark A. Plostock, CPA, CITP said, “The accounting profession is most fortunate to have such an outstanding teacher, writer and advisor, who has touched the lives of so many practitioners. He has been and continues to be an innovator in the profession. He is still running some of the leading conferences in the tax field.”

“Sid is a living legend for all practitioners in the fields of tax and financial planning,” Perry A. Shulman, CPA said in endorsing his nomination. “Former graduates of his CPA exam review courses have become leaders in the profession in their own right. He always stresses the need for practitioners to conduct themselves in the highest ethical manner.”

He has authored or co-authored hundreds of books and video courses on taxes and estate planning. He created and has moderated the AICPA conference on Tax Strategies for the High Income Taxpayer for more than 20 years. For the past 40 years, he has organized and moderated the UJA-Federation Sidney Kess New York Estate, Tax & Financial Planning Conference.

He has written more than 1,000 articles for the “Tax Tips” column in the New York Law Journal over the past 40 years.

He received AICPA’s Special Recognition Award in 2003 for his contributions to its continuing education programs and also received the Hall of Fame Award from the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils.

Kess was chairman of the Advisory Board of Tax Hotline and he is a consulting editor of the CCH Financial and Estate Planning Report Board.

He has been named one of Accounting Today’s 100 Most Influential CPAs in the U.S. for several years and CPA Magazine named him The Most Influential Practitioner.

Kess received his J.D. from Harvard Law School, his LL.M. from New York University Graduate School of Law and his B.B.A. from Bernard M. Baruch College. He was a professor at Campbell University, Bules, North Carolina; an Adjunct Professor of Taxation, Baruch College, New York City and former Chairman, Advisory Board of the Baruch College Executive Tax Program.