Australian high jumper and later South Carolina accountant builds lifelong bond with the Moore School and his mentor
Alumnus Tony Callander (’71 accounting, ’72 MACC) came to the U.S. from Australia on a USC track team scholarship in 1967. He turned 20 a few days after that first flight to South Carolina not knowing a soul in the States. He would go on to lead the track team as captain his senior year as a Gamecock.
When he graduated with his MACC, Callander went to work for Ernst & Young in their Columbia office. Soon after joining the E&Y team, Callander was assigned a new boss, Bruce Hadlock, who became the managing partner for their office.
Callander considers Hadlock a mentor and friend; Hadlock later signed Callander’s partnership nomination for E&Y.
Hadlock, now deceased, “was an outstanding CPA and an outstanding gentleman, too,” Callander said. “You could never find anybody who would say a bad word about him; he was just a remarkable man.”
In honor of Hadlock’s impact on him and his career, Callander began the Bruce W. Hadlock Endowed Scholarship for the Moore School. The scholarship is awarded to business students with financial need with preference given to first-generation students from underrepresented populations.
“The main thing Hadlock taught me was to listen a lot more than I used to and not be quite so quick to reach conclusions — patience is what he taught me,” Callander said. “He also said health and family were far more important than what you do for a living.”
Toward the end of his career, Hadlock switched gears and began teaching accounting at USC; Callander was named as his successor as managing partner.
When the Columbia E&Y office closed in 1993, Callander transferred to the Greenville, South Carolina, office, where he was also the managing partner until he retired in 2008.
Along with creating the endowed scholarship, Callander has held a number of volunteer roles with the Moore School, including serving as a co-founder and board member of the Friends of the Accounting Department (FAD) and as a USC-Business Partnership Foundation trustee, vice president, president and immediate past president. He is also a 1999 recipient of the Moore School Distinguished Alumni Award.