Bernard Blum, who built Blum Shapiro & Co. P.C. into the largest locally based accounting firm in Connecticut, died October 8. He was 86.
Blum was a graduate of New York University and did graduate work at the University of Connecticut law school. In 1980, he co-founded the firm as Blum Gavens & Kaplan in West Hartford, later merging with Shapiro Rosenthal to form Blum Shapiro.
In 2005, the company acquired Fairfield-based Leask & Leask, and today employs 45 people in the town”™s Southport district office, along with 235 more at the West Hartford headquarters.
In June, the company was ranked the 83rd largest accounting firm in the United States by Accounting Today magazine.
“Bernie was one of the key people to help move forward the accounting profession in ConnecticutWest Hartford. “He had a relentlessly positive attitude; he didn”™t really think of things from a negative standpoint. It was, ”˜How can we make this better?”™” in the last 50 years,” said Carl Johnson, the firm”™s managing partner in