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May 7, 2021

Koehler Shares Why He Passes It Forward

By Paul H. Koehler, CPA, ’76
Koehler Shares Why He Passes It Forward
Paul H. Koehler, CPA, ’76, and his wife, Mary Ann (Czeschin), ’77, pave the way to help others within the School of Accountancy community give back and support the future of accounting.

My wife, Mary Ann (Czeschin), ’77, and I are proud graduates of the College of Business and are very grateful for the education and experiences we had in college. We believe in supporting higher education and are happy to share our time and financial blessings with accounting students as a way of passing on the opportunity we had to them.

Today I own a CPA firm in Lincoln, specializing in government and nonprofit auditing, training and consulting. Mary Ann worked 12 years in the banking industry and 30 years in accounting and business at the university before retiring in 2019. We met at a Halloween party in 1983 and married three years later. We’ve had chances to move and turned them down.

Born in Lincoln, Mary Ann always knew she would be a Husker. I moved to Seward, Nebraska, from St. Louis in 1965 so my father could teach at what was then called Concordia Teachers College. He passed away two years later due to a heart attack at age 46. I inherited his love of education.

After graduating top of my class and sharing the Commencement stage with the featured speaker, then U.S. President Gerald R. Ford, I passed the CPA exam. Then one of my memorable professors, Dr. Robert Raymond, invited me to speak to his students and share what I had learned in the professional world. I was grateful for those opportunities.

My first employer, now known as KPMG, asked if I would teach courses in our firm, and since then, I have taught all over the country for CPA firms, State Societies of CPAs and State Auditor’s Offices. I also serve as a volunteer guest lecturer at three universities, including at SOA. I enjoy helping others learn and think my dad would have approved.

Mary Ann and I want to share our good fortune by passing it on to others. In a way, a donor is like the quarterback of a football team. The quarterback (donor) decides when to throw a pass (share) to an eligible receiver who is open. Of course, it takes a team effort to help put the quarterback in a position to make that pass play, and the benefits of a completion can last a lifetime.

Do you want to get in the game? Please consider generously passing on some of your resources to the School of Accountancy. When you do, everybody wins.