Honoring Cathy – A Newcomers’ Perspective

Cathy Cavanagh and her daughter Christine Uri – Contributed photo

Genie Williams in Cathy Cavanagh’s office sent over this note from the new partner. Cathy’s 65^th  birthday is this Saturday and it coincides with this year’s Relay for Life at the fairgrounds…

In the summer of 2013, I received a call from a colleague telling me about this accounting practice that was potentially coming on the market in a place called Friday Harbor. As a guy who grew up in a small town in Michigan and having spent most of my career in Phoenix, I immediately said “where is that exactly”?

I had been doing consulting in Seattle for several years and we had opened our office there in 2013, but Friday Harbor didn’t ring a bell. After being educated from a few folks on the San Juans, I reached out to Cathy Cavanagh, the CPA who owned this practice.

I remember exactly where I was the first time I spoke with Cathy and I remember learning about her cancer and her practice. What I remember most about that conversation was the remarkable personality and positivity Cathy exuded. Just diagnosed with cancer, having to try to find someone to jump in and help with her practice, and all of the normal stresses of running a business on top of it, I could hear the smile on her face through the laughter and her words.

I decided to “explore” this further. My colleague Kevin headed out to Friday Harbor to meet Cathy and came back with the same reaction. There was something about her that just stood out. We dug further, both in the community and in her practice and what we found was a highly-respected CPA, an excellent practice, but most of all a beloved person in the community.

We worked it out with Cathy and have made it through our first tax season together. Cathy is still guiding ship for a while we continue to learn about Cathy, meet our new clients, spend time with Genie and Bonnie (her amazing staff) and learn more about the community. We are providing back-end tax support with returns, tax questions and assisting with unique client situations. Any transition is challenging, but we know that Cathy and her team as well as her clients are working hard to make it work. We are working hard to find Cathy’s eventual replacement that Cathy will train and we will announce that as soon as we can.

I am so excited to call Cathy my partner and to be part of such an amazing community. I have had the opportunity to meet many of you and I look forward to meeting more of you very soon. We are excited to continue to be an excellent advisor for you. I do have much larger feet than Cathy, but filling her shoes will not be easy.

Jordan Taylor – President
Pyramid Financial – Tax
Phoenix – Seattle – Friday Harbor

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