Ledger & Quill, the DePaul University School of Accountancy alumni organization, will present retired Ernst & Young Partner Harvey Coustan of the North Loop neighborhood with its Award of Merit and retired DePaul Professor Richard Bannon of Las Vegas with its Mentor Award at the organizations’ spring reception on May 5.

The event at the Chicago Athletic Association also celebrates the 30th anniversary of the school’s Master of Science in Taxation (MST) Program with a reunion of program graduates and faculty.

Illinois CPA Society Executive Director Martin Rosenberg will present Coustan with the 1999 Award of Merit. The award recognizes Coustan’s long and distinguished career in accounting. Coustan, a retired senior tax partner with the Chicago office of Ernst & Young, has been a prominent presence in the Chicago business community. Currently a consultant for the Illinois CPA Society, he is a former member of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue’s Advisory Group and past chair of the Federal Tax Division of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Coustan co-founded DePaul’s MST program with Bannon and former DePaul Accounting Department Chair Eldred R. Strobel. Coustan helped to form the program’s practice-based curriculum, which is constantly updated and taught by experts with close ties to the Chicago accounting community.

McDonald’s Corp. President and CEO Jack M. Greenberg, an MST graduate and former faculty member, will present Richard Bannon with the inaugural Mentor Award. The award recognizes Bannon’s lasting personal influence on the careers of many students.

Bannon has had a distinguished career both in education and accounting. He came to DePaul as a professor of accountancy specializing in graduate tax education in 1983 and taught at the university for five years before becoming professor emeritus. Prior to joining DePaul’s faculty, Bannon was a partner and international tax specialist with the former accounting firm Arthur Young and an economics professor at Catholic University in Washington, D.C.

DePaul’s MST has grown from three courses offered by DePaul’s accounting department in 1969 to a nationally prominent program offering 23 courses in the expanded School of Accountancy today. More than 100 Chicago tax experts have taught in the program and more than 1,500 students have graduated from DePaul with MST degrees.

The Ledger & Quill spring reception and reunion, dubbed "There IS Life After Taxes," will be hosted by Ledger & Quill President Robert E. Brooks, MST Program Coordinator Ed Foth, and School of Accountancy Director Ray Whittington.

In its most recent ranking, Bowman's Accounting Report ranked DePaul's School of Accountancy the ninth major academic source of partners in Big Six accounting firms.

For more information or to attend the event, contact DePaul's Office of Alumni Relations at 312/362-8584.