Brian Rhodes receives his Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand 50 year milestone award from CAANZ past president Cassandra Crowley. Photo / Supplied
Brian Rhodes receives his Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand 50 year milestone award from CAANZ past president Cassandra Crowley. Photo / Supplied
It is not every day you hear of someone who has worked in a profession for 50 years and loved every day of it.
But retired charted accountant Brian Rhodes can say exactly that.
Born and raised on a dairy farm in Brunswick, Rhodes attended Wanganui Technical College and thenbegan working at Freeman R Jackson.
"We had great big ledgers you wrote up and we only balanced once a month and the accountant there didn't even use a calculator with many million-dollar transactions," he said.
At 18 years old, he moved to Hamilton where he worked for Newton King, who soon came to owe the railways over three million pounds.
With not knowing who to charge their finances to and the head of their finance department suffering from mental health issues, Rhodes took it upon himself to sort out their finances within two weeks.
The company was very impressed and offered him a job creating a new payroll system.
"They said 'you're off to university' and that's where it started really."
When he returned to Whanganui he held a job as an accountant was with Farm Products Wanganui and then with Silk Masons Chartered Accountants.
Later he joined Western Bell and Partnership, which made safety bottle tops for pill bottles that produced around 10 million a day in a factory in Chicago, a partnership that he later took over.
In 1982 Graeme Meyers asked him to join Markhams Wanganui Limited.
"Graeme set out a plan, he said right there's got to be a balance in life, we can work 10 hours a day for five days of the week, you don't take work home and the office will be locked in the weekends and it worked so there was a balance of family life."
Rhodes has also been involved with a number of organisations outside of the firm.
With Rodeo New Zealand he became the secretary-treasurer for seven years and for a time was the only New Zealander on the World Rodeo Council.
Rhodes worked with Whanganui Plumbers for 44 years, becoming the secretary and treasurer of Wanganui Master Plumbers in 1974 and in 2016 he was made a life member of Master Plumbers.
He was involved in running two national conferences organised by Wanganui Master Plumbers, as well as organising an overseas conference held at Jupiter's Casino on Australia's Gold Coast in the late 1980s.
Rhodes has also been on a number of boards and trusts and was the Otamatea Ward representative on the Waitotara County Council for 16 years.
His involvement in Bushy Park included being the Trust treasurer for 15 years and running the homestead for four months.
He has also chaired Markhams New Zealand and has been the secretary of the local branch of the National Institute of Chartered Accountants.
His interest in horticulture is still strong as he has been the Whanganui Horticultural Society president for seven years and is involved with Whanganui Beautifying Society and the national body and Whanganui branch of the Camellia Society.
And despite retiring in 2006, he was still involved in 104 family trusts through his work.
"I loved every day of my life as an accountant. It's a people thing, they have to trust you then you can give them the confidence of when you think things are right to move ahead with it."
Brian Rhodes has a long association with Bushy Park and ran the homestead for a time. Photo / File
Reflecting on the changes chartered accountancy has gone through, he said it is great and to not be scared of the change.
"The changes have taken away the drudging of writing up and recording things."
He said everything is done very automatically which allows accountants to give clients and banks information on a monthly basis.
"You're not spending all this time on preparation and you've got the figures to advise on.
"You've got to adapt but you've got to keep up with upskilling."
He said accountants had to keep upskilling, both nationally and through their own firms.
After his wife passed away in 1990 he went to study flat tax rates and general linguistics at Victoria University.
Alongside keeping himself busy in retirement, Rhodes loves to travel, having almost travelled to 130 countries, some of them almost 30 times.
"Been busy really, too busy, but I get bored very quickly if I'm not doing anything."
Brian Rhodes receives his Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand 50 year milestone award from CAANZ past president Cassandra Crowley. Photo / Supplied
His passion and dedication have recently been recognised by receiving the Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CAANZ) 50 year milestone award.
