our Firm S. Preston Douglas opened his accounting practice in Lumberton, North Carolina, on December 1, 1941, under the name of S. Preston Douglas, Certified Public Accountant. According to the December 7, 1941, Sunday edition of the local newspaper, Mr. Douglas was the only Certified Public Accountant residing in Robeson county or the adjoining counties of Hoke, Cumberland, Bladen and Columbus. For the previous eight years, he had been a member of a Charlotte accounting firm which he represented in Lumberton. He was forty years old at the time he opened his Lumberton office. On January 1, 1961, Mr. Douglas formed a partnership with four of his staff CPAs. The original partners of S. Preston Douglas & Associates were Preston Douglas, Stephen "Pete" Shaw, Bonnor Hudson, Joseph Lineberry, and Drew Mills. Mr. Douglas died July 9, 1965. The business has operated continuously as a partnership from 1961 until today. In 1995, the partnership became a Registered Limited Liability Partnership and thus the "LLP" designation at the end of our name. On November 22, 1963, the partnership bought the Elizabethtown accounting practice of John Liles and opened its Elizabethtown office. In July of 1979, the firm opened an office in Whiteville, North Carolina. Expanding to three offices has allowed our firm to satisfactorily serve the accounting needs of southeastern North Carolina for over forty years. Our firm has a rich heritage of which we are most proud. Many of our firm's former staff and partners would represent a "Who's Who" of CPAs in North Carolina over the last fifty years.