In memoriam.

• Position: Kenneth Leventhal - In memoriam

Kenneth Leventhal, CPA, CalCPA member, founder of the largest CPA firm in the United States specializing in real estate and namesake of the USC Elaine and Kenneth Leventhal School of Accounting, died May 8. He was 91.

Born in Cincinnati, Leventhal and his family moved to Los Angeles when he was 8 years old. After graduating from Hollywood High School, he served in the U.S. Army during World Warn, then attended UCLA. There he met his wife, Elaine Otter, and the pair founded Kenneth Leventhal & Company in the second bedroom of their apartment in 1949.

As he began to recruit partners, he pushed the firm to become business experts in real estate. The firm's early clients included real estate giants Ray Watt, Trammell Crow, William Lyon and Montgomery Ross Fisher.

Over the years, Leventhal's firm also worked with Donald Trump, hotel developer John Portman and mall developer Edward DeBartolo. It also advised the U.S. Resolution Trust Corporation in selling billions of dollars of assets of failed thrift institutions. In 1995 the firm merged with Ernst & Young.

Also a philanthropist...