Findlay CPA served on local board of education

7/26/2006

FINDLAY - Harry W. Buckingham, 77, a former local business owner who was a former member of the Findlay Board of Education and a former president of the Findlay Chamber of Commerce, died Sunday in the Swan Creek Retirement Village, Toledo.

He had been in ill health. The cause of death was not reported.

Mr. Buckingham served on the board of education in the 1980s. He was president of the chamber of commerce in 1979.

A certified public accountant, Mr. Buckingham founded the former Buckingham and Associates in the 1960s and headed the company until selling it in the late 1990s and retiring. He also owned Data Processing Services of Findlay from its inception in the mid 1970s until selling it the mid 1990s.

"As a certified public accountant, he was especially brilliant in mathematics," said Larry Crates, a partner in Coldren-Crates Funeral Home, Findlay, for which Mr. Buckingham was an accountant from the 1950s into the 1990s.

"He became a very prominent citizen here. Whatever he was involved in, he was a natural leader."

A native of Bloomdale, Ohio, Mr. Buckingham grew up on a family farm in Fostoria, graduating from Fostoria High School in 1947.

He was a sergeant in the Army during the Korean War.

Once back home after his honorable discharge, he used the GI Bill to attend Bowling Green State University, from which he graduated in 1956 with a bachelor's degree in accounting.

"He worked hard all his life. He was a level-headed guy and his family meant a lot to him," his daughter, Susan Gray, said.

In the mid 1950s, Mr. Buckingham married Esther Kieffer. They were later divorced.

In the mid 1970s, he married Carolyn Schmick. The also were later divorced.

In the late 1980s, he married Marjory Adamson. She died in 2000.

Mr. Buckingham was a lifelong member of First Presbyterian Church, Findlay.

His other memberships included the Findlay Rotary Club, of which he was a past president; Findlay Country Club, and Fostoria Country Club.

Surviving are his sons, David and Mark; daughters, Lucy Russell, Susan Gray, and Lisa Martich; sister, Hazel Raymont, and seven grandchildren.

Services will be at 11 a.m. Friday at First Presbyterian Church, Findlay. Visitation will be after 3 p.m. tomorrow in the Coldren-Crates Funeral Home, Findlay.

The family suggests tributes to the church or the Julian A. Faisant Adult Day Center.