ADA, Okla. – East Central University alumnus, Frankie Crawford, is set to be honored at ECU’s Evening of Honors and Recognition, May 10 at 6 p.m., in the ECU Foundation Hall, located inside the Chickasaw Business & Conference Center.
A 1985 graduate of ECU, Crawford received his bachelor’s degree in Accounting. He left ECU as a four-year letterman for the university’s tennis team, former president of the ECU Presidential Leadership Class and a two-time host and emcee of Tiger Tangles.
“My first reaction when President Godwin called me to inform me of my selection as a distinguished alumni was that he must have the wrong Frankie Crawford,” Crawford stated when asked about the honor. “Once he convinced me that he had the correct guy (President Godwin and I were at ECU at the same time), I was initially shocked, humbled, and excited that the University that I have always considered my second home would honor me in such a fashion.”
Following his time at ECU, Crawford pursued accounting and has dedicated nearly 40 years of his career to Crawford & Associates, P.C. where he currently serves as President. The firm specializes in providing auditing, consulting and accounting services solely to government entities and is a member of the AICPA and the AICPA Government Audit Quality Center.
Crawford was recognized as a recipient of the U.S. Graduate Schools “2010 Instructor Excellence Award,” a recipient of the Association of Government Accountants 2014 Private Sector Financial Excellence Award, he served a term as Chairman of the AICPA Government Expert Panel and is currently the Chairman of the Oklahoma Society of CPAs Government Accounting and Auditing Committee. He has also been involved in a number of other AICPA committees and task forces as they relate to governmental accounting and auditing including the AICPA Governmental Accounting and Auditing Committee, the AICPA Government and Not-For-Profit Expert Panel, the AICPA Government Performance and Accountability Committee, the AICPA GASB 34 Audit Guide Revision Task Force, and the GASB’s current Financial Reporting Model revision Task Force. In 2015, Mr. Crawford completed a 4-year term as Chairman of the AICPA’s annual Government and Not-For-Profit Training Conference after serving on the Planning Task Force of the Conference for 18 years.
“I certainly didn’t set out on a path to distinguish myself from anybody,” stated Crawford. “I was just looking for a place to further my education, provide me life skills that I knew I would need one day to provide for my future family, and of course have fun while doing it. I found all those things and more at ECU, as the University basically adopted me into their family, and in return, I have tried over the years to return that kindness and treat the University as part of my family.”
Crawford has maintained a strong and consistent relationship with ECU since his graduation. He served four years on the ECU Alumni Board, including one year as the president/chairman, a four year term on the ECU Foundation Board, and has guest lectured for the ECU accounting club and accounting classes.
Since 1992, Crawford’s company has maintained an annual monetary Crawford & Associates Scholarship to an ECU student majoring in Accounting, along with a summer internship in many of those years.
Currently over half of Crawford & Associates employees are ECU graduates, many of them products of the internship program.
To purchase tickets for ECU Evening of Honors and Recognition, visit ecok.edu/2024EOH or contact the Office of Alumni Relations at alumni@ecok.edu or at 580-559-5724. Advanced tickets are recommended.