Steve Harlan grew up in St. Louis, where his father was a banker. He knew he was interested in business but didn't focus on accounting until he took a test at the University of Missouri's career placement office.

"Growth is a great motivator," says Harlan, whose tenure at DC's Peat Marwick office spanned a period of big growth both in Washington and in the accounting field. As the region's public and private sectors grew, clients and citizens had new expectations for accountants - to begin computer-assisted auditing and to detect fraud in financial reports. Harlan thrived on new challenges. In the early '70s, he persuaded a computer expert to teach him about the new machines - and became Peat Marwick's first partner in charge of computer auditing.

Steve Harlan also became synonymous with Peat Marwick in the community. He's served as president of the Cultural Alliance, the Greater Washington Board of Trade, and the National Capital Area Health Care Coalition. He worked with the YMCA, the Greater Washington Community Foundation, the Washington Opera, the Federal City Council, and American University.

Here's how the late Joe Riley, a 1995 Business Hall of Fame laureate, characterized Harlan's commitment: "We all know people who lend their name and that's the extent of it. Not so with Steve. When you got his name, you got the whole load."

Harlan left the Washington office in 1987 to become vice chair of KPMG Peat Marwick's international operations in New York. But he never gave up his home here. Upon retiring in 1992, Harlan started a second career: He and his son, Donald, also a CPA, run H.G. Smithy Company, a local management and mortgage-banking firm.

For his success at KPMG Peat Marwick, Harlan credits two things: recruiting good young employees - he never chose below No. 10 in the ranks of a college's business class - and being "always on a learning curve" himself. He still is. His latest assignment is as unpaid vice chair of the DC financial control board. When friends asked why he was taking the job, Harlan replied, "When was the last time the President of the United States asked you to do something?

"I have great hope. I think this city is one of the jewels in the crown," Steve Harlan says.