Half a Century of Dedication
When it comes to longevity at JCCS, no one tops Joe Shevlin. With nearly 50 years at the firm—spanning more than half of JCCS’s 80‑year history—Joe has witnessed firsthand the evolution of the profession, the firm, and the people who make it what it is.
Joe joined the Helena office in 1977 after starting his career with a national firm in Nevada. At the time, tax season looked very different. Before personal computers became standard, the firm relied on a process that feels almost unimaginable today.
“We would fill out input sheets with client information and bus them to Great Falls overnight,” Joe recalls. “The sheets were processed on a mainframe computer, the returns were printed, and then they were bussed back to Helena. That was the process. It worked, but it took time.”
Everything changed with the arrival of PCs in the 1980s. Suddenly, work that once required overnight transfers between offices could be done in‑house.
“When PCs were introduced to the firm, we could do the tax return ourselves and didn’t have to send it to Great Falls,” he says.
A Career Built on Trust and Connection
Joe was drawn to tax work not just for the technical challenge but for the relationships it created.
“I liked the challenge of helping the client win and be successful in tax planning,” he says. And in his view, the role of a CPA is deeply personal—every bit as personal as healthcare.
“A doctor takes care of their patient’s physical well‑being. A CPA takes care of a client’s financial well‑being. It can be just as personal as taking care of someone’s health.”
Over the decades, Joe became known not only for his technical expertise but also for his commitment to the people around him—clients, colleagues, and future generations of accounting students. As a member of the board of directors, he championed JCCS’s culture of giving and helped establish endowment funds for scholarships at schools across Montana.
The Culture That Keeps a Firm Strong
Joe believes JCCS’s strength and longevity come down to one thing: its people.
“The firm is family, and the employees play a key role in the firm’s success story,” he says. “If it weren’t for the employees being loyal and hard‑working people, the firm wouldn’t have lasted this long.”
That sense of family is part of what kept Joe rooted at JCCS for nearly five decades—years filled with colleagues who became lifelong friends and clients who became part of his story.
Eighty Years for JCCS, Eighty Years for Joe
This year, Joe celebrates his 80th birthday, right alongside the firm he has helped shape for nearly half a century. He’s seen many team members come and go, but the experiences and relationships have stayed with him.
“It was the best 50 years of my life—second only to the nearly 55 years of married life with my wife Cherie,” he says.
Today, Joe still maintains a small group of clients and remains connected to the firm where he spent his career—and helped build its legacy.
(Pictured left to right: Bob Nebel, Terry Alborn, Joe Shevlin, George Campanella, and Stone Paulson. Photo credit: The History Museum)
