The Mystery of Our Chapter’s History

By David F. Veyna, CPA

Thank you to everyone who was able to attend our installation event at the McAfee Coliseum where we watched our San Jose Earthquakes go up against the mighty LA Galaxy and David Beckham. Many members brought their families and, other than the score, it turned out to be a great event.

During the installation presentation there is a time when a gavel is passed to the incoming president. On this gavel there is an inscription that reads:

In Memory of: Emmet W. Gottenberg, CPA
Presented by: J.E. Bean, Jr., CPA

Upon noticing this inscription, I became curious as to how long we had been passing this gavel from president to president, who exactly were Mr. Gottenberg and Mr. Bean and what role did they play in our chapter. After several inquiries, I realized that our chapter has lost some of its history. No one I asked could answer my questions.

Thanks to the internet and some help from an amateur history buff, Loui Tucker, I was able to find out a bit about Gottenberg and Bean. I learned that both were CPAs and attorneys, but neither of them was a past president nor appears to have been an officer of our chapter. Mr. Gottenberg was born around 1890, was admitted to the bar in November 1933 and in that same month and year played a small role in a very dark moment in San Jose’s history.

The story is that in November 1933, two men were captured and charged with the kidnapping and murder of Brooke Hart who was a young Santa Clara University student and heir to the Hart’s Department Store fortune. Hart’s Department Store was the largest department store in San Jose at the time. This occurred during the height of the depression and just following the famous Lindbergh baby kidnapping and murder. Before the men could ever come to trial, an angry mob broke into the county jail, hauled the two men out of their cells and lynched them across the street at St. James Park in downtown San Jose.

Mr. Gottenberg’s connection in this was that two sisters of one of the accused worked for Mr. Gottenberg and his partner. The sisters must have convinced them to help defend their brother, even though they were only tax attorneys and, in at least Mr. Gottenberg’s case, a just-recently-admitted-to-the-bar attorney. A more detailed account of the event can be found in Harry Farrell’s book Swift Justice.

One of my goals this year is to find out more about the history of the gavel and the two individuals named on it, Emmet W. Gottenberg, CPA, and J.E. Bean, Jr., CPA. To do this, I need your help. If you know anything about these men, have ideas on how we can track down their history or would like join me researching this, please contact me.

—David F. Veyna, CPA

This entry was posted on Friday, June 27th, 2008 at 10:53 am and is filed under President's Message. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.