A native of Eden, NC, Elwood Walker earned his undergraduate degree from UNC-Chapel Hill and master’s degree from Duke University. Before becoming a CPA and joining Price Waterhouse in Charlotte, Elwood worked for IBM where he became a computer-systems engineer and a certified data processor (CD
P).
Through his active involvement with NCACPA, Elwood has chaired several committees and served on the board as director, treasurer, and president over a 25-year period. After retiring in 1995, as the managing partner of Price Waterhouse’s Management Consulting Services in the Southeast USA, Elwood and his wife Mary moved from Charlotte to their beach house in Wrightsville Beach where they became involved with the UNCW Cameron School of Business. Since retiring, Elwood has served as a board member, and he and Mary have contributed two endowed student scholarships to the business school. They enjoy mentoring students and meeting their scholarship recipients annually. As a result of their generosity, 65 students have received their scholarships over the past 24 years.
Elwood has also been an active participant in UNCW’s Lifelong Learning Institute since 2000, serving on several committees including finance, curriculum, and forums. Additionally, he started and chaired two forums (discussion groups)—American Presidents and Historical Christianity.
In 2018, when Elwood learned that NCACPA and the NC CPA Foundation were focusing more on helping accounting students financially through an enhanced and more robust scholarship program, he volunteered to introduce it to the accounting faculty and students at UNCW and Cape Fear Community College (CFCC). “I was thrilled when six UNCW and two CFCC students received scholarships that first year,” Elwood stated. He also learned that there were many more deserving students than there were scholarships available.
Curious what special contribution he could give, Elwood reached out to NCACPA leadership and was introduced to the new Foundation Legacy Scholars Program where he volunteered to be the first NC CPA to establish one.
Elwood encourages his peers to “consider giving back to the profession from which they have benefited by contributing to the NC CPA Foundation’s annual efforts to fund NC accounting student scholarships.”
Elwood’s generosity has and continues to afford young professionals the opportunity to pursue a career in the accounting profession. The grateful students fortunate to receive the benefits of his kindness are quickly becoming the faces of the next generation of accounting professionals. On behalf of NCACPA, thank you to our Foundation donors supporting the future of the profession!