Frederick A. Gorham, Jr. Page 478-479 - Frederick A. Gorham, Jr., has become in his native city of Grand Rapids a prominent representative of his chosen profession, that of public accountant, and since 1922 he has been local partner and manger of the Michigan offices of Lawrence Scudder & Company, auditors and public accountants, with general headquarters in the city of Chicago and Grand Rapids. Mr. Gorham was born in Grand Rapids on the 12th of March 1877, and is a son of Frederick A. and Ella (Conger) Gorham, the former of whom was born in Cuyahoga county, Ohio, in 1845, and the latter of whom was born in the city of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Frederick A. Gorham, Sr., has been a resident of Grand Rapids since the year 1875, and for a term of years he here served as an auditor for the Grand Rapids & Indiana Railroad. September 1, 1895, he became assistant secretary of the Michigan Trust Company, with which important financial institution he has since continued to be connected in an executive capacity, he being now its vice-president. Frederick A. Gorham, Jr., attended the Powell private school in Grand Rapids, and in the period of 1893-95 he was a student in a leading collegiate preparatory school at Concord, Massachusetts. In historic old Yale University he was graduated as a member of the class of 1899 and with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. He then returned to Grand Rapids, where he was employed one year by a lumber company, with which, as he has stated with a reminiscent glance at his hands, he did a little office work and had an adequate experience in piling lumber. During a period of nine years Mr. Gorham served as cashier for representative stockbrokers in the city of Chicago, and thereafter he was for three years secretary and treasurer of the Payette Milling Company, at Payette, Idaho. He then returned to Grand Rapids and assumed the position of manger of the income tax department of the Michigan Trust Company. From 1918 until 1922 he was here established independently in business as a public accountant, and since the latter year he has been a principal and the manager of the Michigan offices of Lawrence Scudder & Company, as previously noted in this context. Mr. Gorham has membership in the Kent Country Club, the Muskegon Country Club, the University Club of Grand Rapids, and the Century Club of Muskegon. He maintains a summer cottage at Omena, Leelanau county, his Grand Rapids home is at 420 Paris avenue, southeast, and his business offices are in Suite 411-14 Houseman building. He finds ample opportunity for seasonable indulgence in his predilection for the game of golf. His political allegiance is given to the Republican party, and he and his wife are communicants of the Cathedral parish of St. Mark’s church, Protestant Episcopal. The marriage of Mr. Gorham and Miss Phoebe Gheen Ricker was solemnized January 23, 1907, and the two children of this union are: Virginia, born September 17, 1912, and Frederick A., III, born December 23, 1913. Mrs. Gorham is a daughter of the late John H. Ricker, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and her mother likewise is deceased.

Transcriber:  Nancy Myers
Created:  2 October 2003