San Francisco County
Biographies
ROBERT M.
GANE
Robert M. Gane, widely known for his skill as a certified accountant, and now president of the San Francisco Institute of Accountancy at 55 New Montgomery street, is a native of Cleveland, Ohio, where his birth occurred November 23, 1895. Mr. Gane is a son of the late Benjamin F. and Anna (Slutz) Gane, the former of English descent. During his active life Benjamin F. Gane followed the occupation of a traveling salesman, covering much territory, both in the eastern and western parts of the United States. He died in 1917, when forty-three years of age. His wife was born in Ohio and was a member of an old pioneer family of that state, of Scotch and Irish extraction. By her marriage to Mr. Gane she became the mother of five children, of whom Robert M. is the eldest.
Robert M. Gane attended the public schools of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and when nineteen years of age started to earn his own living, almost his first position having been with the Milton Manufacturing Company in Milton, Pennsylvania. His work was of a clerical nature, and he was likewise an inspector of shells which were being made for the British military forces. With the declaration of war by the United States against Germany impending, Mr. Gane resigned his position and enlisted in the United States Navy. After preliminary training at Newport, Rhode Island, he was sent to Queenstown, and there placed in charge of the ship’s office of the U. S. S. Jenkins. He served in the navy as chief yeoman, and later he was transferred to a medical hospital in Cavite, Philippine Islands, on account of an eye affliction he had contracted. In September, 1920, he received a medical discharge in Mare Island, California. After receiving his final papers he came to San Francisco, and here found employment with James O. Sully & Company, certified public accountants. Prior to this he had been a student in vocational training at the San Francisco Institute of Accountancy. He remained with the Sully firm for about eighteen months, when he resigned, and during the ensuing fifteen months he was in charge of accounts for the Olympic Club of San Francisco, as well as of the accounts for the building of the Lakeside country Club. He was next affiliated with the national certified public accounting firm of Haskins & Sells and while with them specialized on stock brokerage accounts. He obtained his degree as a certified public accountant in 1927, having successfully passed the California state examination, and in 1929 he became a partner of the San Francisco Institute of Accountancy, then operated on a partnership basis. He became the virtual head of the company and has conducted the affairs of the school with marked ability and along the most modern lines. The school was originally established in 1919 by Samuel Hyer, having begun in a very small way. It has since developed into the largest of its kind in San Francisco, with an average enrollment of about three hundred students. Mathematics and business English are among the subjects taught, in addition to accountancy. Mr. Gane, in partnership with Myron M. Strain, C. P. A., also conducts a public accounting practice under the firm name of Robert M. Gane & Company, and represents the firm of Arthur Wolff, of Los Angeles, California, and Maurice Goldberg, of New York city. Credit for the early development of the San Francisco Institute of Accountancy must be given in great degree to the late Cecil R. Clayton, one of the first and active members.
In San Francisco, on October 11, 1925, Mr. Gane was married to Mrs. Florence (Gill) Shoemaker, who was born in Stockton, California. Mr. and Mrs. Gane reside in the Clay Jones apartments.
In politics Mr. Gane may be classed as an independent republican. His religious affiliation is with the Church of Christ, Scientist. Swimming and golf are his favorite recreations. He has won success in his chosen profession not through chance or influence, but entirely through his own efforts and his natural talent in work of this nature. Acquiring a knowledge of accounting meant long years of virtual apprenticeship and arduous labor, but having mastered the profession, he has since reaped the rewards.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Source: Byington, Lewis Francis, “History of
San Francisco 3 Vols”, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.,
Chicago, 1931. Vol. 3 Pages 404-406.
© 2008 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
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