Scarbrough & Murtishaw Gives Personal Touch

Wesley Murtishaw decided to become an accountant in March of 1972 while dickering with a Manila, Ark., banker over the price of a used Ford Mustang. Murtishaw, who is now 70, had recently retired from a 20-year stint in the U.S. Air Force and the banker had driven the car over to the base at Blytheville on a Sunday.

“He started telling me about how he had to have his accounting done at 11 o’clock the Friday night before because that’s the only time he could get an appointment,” Murtishaw said. “We were talking about the car, but I started thinking there must be some kind of demand for accountants. I had taken only one semester of accounting before I went into the Air Force, but I thought maybe I ought to look into it a little more.”

He did. Thirty years later, Scarbrough & Murtishaw CPAs PA has turned a reputation for good customer service into one of the largest accounting practices in Northwest Arkansas. Murtishaw joined the firm in 1975 and bought it in 1986.

Scarbrough & Murtishaw has about 600 clients but does not disclose its annual gross revenue. Murtishaw, the firm’s managing partner, and partner Tommy Lonon boast five CPAs on staff and two other accounting graduates.

Tax services make up about 42 percent of the company’s business. Auditing makes up another 40 percent, and the rest is divvied up between write-up services, compilation and review and business advisory services.

Murtishaw said the practice takes pride in being large enough to offer a broad base of financial services while remaining small enough to treat each client like a partner.

“We think we’re just the right size,” Murtishaw said. “I wouldn’t want to be a sole practitioner because I think you’d have to rule out some things that you just wouldn’t have time to do, namely auditing. I still enjoy doing auditing and taxes myself.

“And I wouldn’t want to be too large, either. You always think you might want to grow a big firm, but you know one of these days I’m going to have to start thinking about retiring.”

Ed Curtis, president of Curtis Chick Service Inc. of Cave Springs, has been a customer of the accounting firm since he founded his poultry service business in 1947. He said his relationship with Murtishaw and his wife Ann Murtishaw keeps him coming back.

The firm does Curtis Chick Service’s taxes and quarterly reports.

“Scarbrough & Murtishaw has kept me straight and saved me a lot of money over the years,” Curtis said. “I am sure of that. They’re very reasonable with what they charge, but more than that they’re especially nice people. Wesley’s wife Ann is a very nice lady, and I would recommend them to any business.”

The accounting firm — founded in the 1940s as Myers, Scarbrough & Baker — has undergone several incarnations. Hugh R. Scarbrough was a founding partner. For a few years it changed to Scarbrough, Lance & Bassett.

Murtishaw bought the business from Hugh Scarbrough Jr. in 1986 and incorporated the firm 1989 to prevent another name change.

Murtishaw, an Air Force navigator who retired as a lieutenant colonel, flew on 25 B-52 missions during the Vietnam War and was decorated with an Air Commendation Medal, Meritorious Service Medal and Combat Crew Medal.

A native of Abbott, a small town south of Fort Smith, Murtishaw earned his bachelor’s degree in 1975 and his master’s in accounting in 1976.

Ann, a native of Amarillo, Texas, picked Northwest Arkansas from the two choices Murtishaw gave her after he retired from the service.

Murtishaw said she preferred the small town atmosphere of Fayetteville to Houston.