Catherine Ann Wolf is a certified public accountant practicing in Belfair. The North Mason Chamber of Commerce recently named her firm Business of the Year for 2003.

With around a half dozen businesses nominated, more than one person named Catherine’s business for that honor, according to chamber executive Don Atkinson. He says there are a number of criteria, yet much of the decision-making process is subjective.

The selection committee not only looked at the quality and size of the business, and the number of people served, but noted how Catherine personally has gone above and beyond to serve her community.

Catherine has been treasurer for the local chamber for six years, and “does a remarkable job at it,” according to Atkinson, putting in many hours on that task.

Fire Chief Mike Greene, another chamber member, says that Catherine and her staff have helped the chamber and their licensing sub-agency with an excellent financial foundation. He says Catherine is generally quiet, but, “when she says things, they are wise.”

She and her husband participate annually in the chamber’s major fund-raiser at Oyster Fest in Shelton every October. They camp on-site at the Mason County Fairgrounds for the event, while she does the cashier and bookkeeping job. The North Mason chamber sells their own style of fried oysters, delectable to the palate.

In business, Catherine puts her clients first, recognizing “if we don’t take care of them, somebody else will.” With that thought in mind, her guiding philosophy, and one she shares with the other three employees in her office, is that the customers are the bosses, and the accounting firm serves them, not the other way around.

She says the firm is busy year round, not only at tax time, but doing audits for non-profits and business consulting. Software selection is one of her areas of instruction, as well as business start-ups. For someone considering starting their own business, she can help them determine if the plan is realistic or not.

Her expertise has also earned her the right to teach tax classes to other tax professionals.

Catherine, with attorney Dan Goodell as her business partner, is further investing in the local community now with a new building under construction near the Belfair post office.

Catherine, who has two adult children and four grandchildren, with two more on the way, has always lived out the importance of family. She waited until her kids were in school before she pursued her degree. She would put the children on the school bus, head for Tacoma to the University of Puget Sound for classes, then get home to greet her son and daughter as they returned from their own day at school.

This method took her ten years to earn her BA in business, majoring in accounting, but her children didn’t have an absentee mom.

Catherine and her husband Gary live in Port Orchard.