Log In | About PICPA | Contact | FAQs

Meet the 2006 Distinguished Public Service
Award Winner

Harry K. Sickler Jr., CPA

Harry K. Sickler (right) receives the 2006 DPSA plaque from Bob Krebs, 2006-2007 PICPA president.

Harry K. Sickler Jr., CPA, is a man who has never forgotten his roots. In fact, he returned to them after years of doing tax returns for some Hollywood icons, including Red Skelton and Jack Webb.

Sickler worked in Los Angeles for Price Waterhouse & Co. in the mid- to late-1950s, and many of his clients were movie stars. Then he came back to his hometown of Tyrone, Pa., and helped turn around a struggling economy. The veteran CPA is being rewarded and recognized by PICPA with the 2006 Distinguished Public Service Award for his tireless efforts.

“Leaving my job in the Hollywood scene was not easy, because I was very well set with my profession with Price Waterhouse & Co. and the glamour associated with our clientele,” Sickler said. “However, the challenges of my professional needs and the needs of my hometown, in general, drove me to return.”

Two of the most important hometown needs were saving a local factory and reopening the Tyrone paper mill; the latter of which saved nearly 200 jobs. To save the local factory, Sickler found investors, assembled a business plan, and coordinated the transition of operations.

In 2003, the paper mill reopened after Sickler’s two-year involvement with several investor groups. Randy Tarpey, CPA, a partner with Sickler’s firm, Harry K. Sickler Associates, says the firm of three CPAs provided more than 2,500 hours of free service to the reopening.

Since his homecoming in 1958, Sickler was instrumental in the founding of the Tyrone Improvement Corporation, the Tyrone Jaycees, the Sinking Valley Country Club, and the Tyrone Golden Eagle Monogram Club, which is dedicated to providing the best facilities and resources for student athletes in the Tyrone school district. Sickler was also a key fundraiser for the Tyrone Hospital, and helped save the institution from bankruptcy in the 1960s.

“Since my return to the Tyrone area, probably my greatest efforts were associated with the need for retaining and obtaining jobs,” Sickler said. Sickler is a past president of PICPA’s Central Chapter, and he has built a CPA practice that has endured for more than 40 years.

Sickler, a graduate of the University of Notre Dame, has a keen interest, as well as many friends, in the field of athletics. He knows several former big-time college football coaches, including Ara Parseghian, Foge Fazio, and long-time Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky.

“I have been blessed with the opportunity to have known, and worked with, these three giants in the athletic field,” Sickler said. “Each of my relationships with them was forged initially through my association with Notre Dame and Penn State, but grew stronger with my being able to work with, and be a part of, their charitable endeavors. Ara’s Medical Research Foundation and Jerry’s Second Mile program are at the top of my giving list.”

Sickler’s endless work in the community can be traced to what Sandusky once told him. “As my good friend Jerry stated, ‘Happiness comes more often when you extend yourself and reach out to others.’ My rewards have come from my public service. Tangible awards come and go, but the intangibles last forever,” Sickler said.

While working in Los Angeles, Sickler was part of the committee at Price Waterhouse that counted, and guarded the secrecy of, the ballots for the Academy Awards. Before returning to central Pennsylvania, he learned an important lesson about people from the Hollywood stars he worked with. “I learned, in most cases, the problems of the famous were basically the same as everyone else, only maybe a little larger,” he said.

Respect and accolades continue to mount for Sickler’s deeds in the community. In 2003, the athletic park in the Tyrone school district was officially named after him. He also created a showcase at the Bull Pen Restaurant, which includes memorabilia of Tyrone athletics and the accomplishments of past and current athletes.

In all, Sickler has been involved with more than 20 organizations or causes in and around the Tyrone community. It is quite an impressive body of community service. Sickler offers advice that ties the profession into public service. “My fellow members should recognize that their very position as a CPA puts them in a position of trust and respect, which opens the door of opportunities for them to serve. Start when you are young … you will be surprised how it will make your position as a CPA a much more enjoyable one.”