10/29/2014
Look at what Mr. Green is doing!!! We love Mr. Green and just like always he keeps on giving. Click the link below to see how.
Mel Green Will Help Others Forever
This is a special year for Melvin R. Green, CPA. It is the
60th anniversary of when he and his late partner Cliff Craver formed the Craver, Green & Co. accounting firm in Norfolk.
This also is the year Mel decided to endow a scholarship fund at the Hampton Roads Community Foundation to help future students have opportunities he never had.
"I did things the hard way," Green recalled the other day just before celebrating his 93rd birthday. For him "the hard way" meant building a successful accounting career despite never having graduated from college.
Mel grew up on a small farm in Ohio, served in the Navy for four years during World War II, married and settled in Norfolk. He used the G.I. Bill to get a year of business college and some correspondence courses under his belt before his money ran out. He also took night classes at what is now Old Dominion University. In the time before student loans and Pell grants, students like Mel either had the money for college or they didn't go.
Mel got a job as a junior accountant in 1947, worked and studied hard and passed the CPA exam in 1950. He retired a few years ago but takes continuing education courses to keep his skills sharp. He remains a consultant with Craver Green, which he believes is the oldest accounting firm in the city still using its original partners' names.
Mel says he chose to start a $25,000 scholarship fund because "since I would like other people to have what I couldn't have. Norfolk has been good to me so I would like to pay that back in some small way."
He chose the community foundation to administer his scholarship because "over the years I have known people at the community foundation and feel close to it." Mel isn't kidding about being close since for more than 30 years his office was next door to the community foundation. For years he also worked down the hall from our current board chair John O. "Dubby" Wynne and the late Joshua P. Darden, who was a long-time foundation board member and chair.
The new Melvin R. Green Scholarship is for students pursuing a four-year degree with a preference for those studying business, especially accounting. Mel's scholarship also has a preference for students at Old Dominion University. The first Green Scholar will be selected in the spring. Mel's scholarship will grow over time and will help business students forever.
Scholarship applications for this and more than 70 other scholarship funds will be available on our website starting December 1. Each fund has a generous donor like Mel with a special interest in education and the opportunities it promises.
Please let me know if I can help you or your clients find a way to use philanthropy to help future generations lead better lives.
Kay Stine
[email protected] or (757) 622-7951
http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?ca=44cb3e64-a72a-4bf6-aae7-3b8d4424360d&c=12734c30-370f-11e3-874c-d4ae528eb986&ch=13a1ba10-370f-11e3-88a2-d4ae528eb986