Long-time civic volunteer and businessman Jim Alderman retiring

After more than 30 years on the boards of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Manatee County, as well as Centerstone of Florida, long-time Bradenton businessman Jim Alderman is ready to call it a career.

Alderman, 72, a certified public accountant, moved to Bradenton in 1953 when his father bought a Ford dealership. Soon after arriving in town, Alderman joined the Boys Club.

“It was a great place for a kid to go. I liked sports and back then the only organized sports for kids my age was at the Boys Club,” Alderman said.

He continued to be a regular at the club until seventh grade. After he graduated from Manatee High School in 1962, he went to the University of Florida, where he earned a degree in accounting. Soon after graduating in 1967, he was drafted into the Army and spent nine months at Fort Jackson, S.C., before being assigned to Nha Trang, Vietnam, as a personnel specialist.

“I was much more serious when I came home,” Alderman said this week, recalling how he went to work for the local accounting firm of Whitcomb and Harrison in 1969.

In 1977, he co-founded Harrison, Alderman & Pilsbury CPAs at 51st Street and Manatee Avenue West. He did business there until 2009 when the Rehfeldt Group Certified Public Accountants bought the business. Since then, Alderman has worked at the Rehfeldt offices at 3201 26th St. W.

Terry Rehfeldt, principal of the company, calls Alderman a walking encyclopedia because of his extensive knowledge of the business, as well as a human abacus, because of his ability to compute complex math problems in his head.

“We told him he can’t totally retire. It would be too much of a brain drain for him to totally leave the company,” Rehfeldt said. “He has got super high integrity and watches out for people.”

Dawn Stanhope, president of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Manatee County, has a similar view of Alderman.

“He is so smart and takes his job seriously. He studies things very, very seriously. He can get very passionate about things. For him, it’s more than looking at financial statements. He wants to know what our strategy is and looks at the impact we are making in the community,” Stanhope said.

Alderman recalled that a friend recruited him for the DeSoto unit board of the Boys and Girls Clubs in the mid-1970s. He served on the Boys and Girls Club corporate board until 2014, and served as chairman in 1985.

“He played a critical role in past capital campaigns, which was put on hold due to the recession in 2009. This campaign has since relaunched and Jim has played an important role through his work with our major gifts division,” Stanhope said.

On Feb. 28, Alderman was inducted into the club’s Alumni Hall of Fame.

Alderman hasn’t served as long on the Centerstone – previously known as Manatee Glens – board as he did for the the Boys and Girls Clubs, but it was longer than he might have expected.

He recruited several potential replacements to the Centerstone board over the years, but they kept being assigned to other board positions, he said.

Alderman and his wife of 48 years, Suzanne, will be moving to Gainesville after his retirement May 8 to be closer to their children and grandchildren.

“I don’t intend to just walk away. I have lived here 63 years and I love Bradenton. It’s a great town. I’ve seen it grow and I am definitely going to miss it,” Alderman said.

This story was originally published April 28, 2017 at 10:33 AM with the headline "Long-time civic volunteer and businessman Jim Alderman retiring."