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After 43 years in practice, the firm of Dowdy & Whittaker, 501 West Street, has now become Thomas Howell Ferguson P.A.

On July 1, 1976 John Dowdy and Charles Whittaker opened their CPA practice in Bainbridge. Both John and Charles had worked with international accounting firms in their Atlanta offices and had each decided to move back to their hometown of Bainbridge when they were both 26 years of age, to start their own firm. After a coin flip, which was won by John, they decided to call the firm Dowdy & Whittaker Certified Public Accountants. They opened their business with one client—John’s father, Toby Dowdy.

Fast forward to the present time. The firm had over 900 active clients when they decided to merge their practice with Thomas Howell Ferguson P.A. CPAs.

John and Charles state they have been blessed with a wonderful staff that is like family to them, and they have also been so fortunate to have developed a business with clients who have become friends, as well as business associates.

A key factor in the merger with the THF was to bring in a firm that could provide excellent professional services for their clients and maintain the good working environment for the staff.

Thomas Howell Ferguson P.A. CPAs opened in 1993 to acquire the office of Ernst & Young. When EY decided to leave the Tallahassee market and move the firm to Jacksonville, partners John Thomas, Winston Howell and Bill Ferguson saw the opportunity to break away and create a local practice ready to serve the North Florida-South Georgia area.

What became an office of approximately 20 team members has now grown to a regional firm with three offices (Tallahassee, Tampa and Bainbridge) with 115 team members.

THF was impressed with the unwavering commitment of Dowdy & Whittaker to their clients, team members and the Bainbridge community. For those reasons, it was a natural fit for Dowdy & Whittaker to merge with THF.

The THF Bainbridge office will continue to offer tax and business consulting services and will add audit and assurance services, merger and acquisition expertise and disaster and emergency management services. Their industry specializations include small business, wealth management, agriculture, employee benefits, insurance, government and not-for-profit, thus creating a more diversified range of services and expertise to the Southwest Georgia region.

The same team members from Dowdy & Whittaker, including John and Charles, will continue to provide the excellent client service that has been consistently delivered over the past 40 years. They will continue to be the points of contact and remain engaged with Bainbridge clients.

John and Charles are thankful to the South Georgia community for their many years of support and look forward to continuing to serve along with the new office manager, Dennis Gallant of Thomas Howell Ferguson P.A.

They welcome the public to attend a ribbon cutting on February 12 at noon to celebrate ‘the old’ while meeting ‘the new’ owners of the firm.

For more information about Thomas Howell Ferguson P.A. CPAs, go to www.thf-cpa.com