Longtime Columbus, Ohio, auditor Hugh Dorrian died on Friday at age 90. Widely respected in Columbus and in the public finance community for his dedication to public service, transparency and timely audits, Dorrian, who held the position for 48 years, leaves a legacy of conscientiousness and mentorship, according to people who worked with and for him.
"He was incredible — the epitome of what you want in public service," said current Columbus Auditor Megan Kilgore, who succeeded Dorrian in the elected position
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Learning from him was like "working for the hardest old-school professor," Kilgore said. "Your workday began at 8 a.m. If you came in at 8:05, that was late. There was no gray area. His discipline was very apparent; he held himself to a very high standard."
But Dorrian was also very generous with his time — "everyone had an opportunity for a meeting, a conversation," she said — and his Rolodex. He opened doors for his mentees and gave them room to shine.
"He loved when someone would work hard to create a better work product," Kilgore said. But showing one's work to Dorrian could be intimidating: "He could still do bond math longhand," she added. "He had an incredible ability to spot a formula error, having never used Excel himself."
Dorrian made a strong impression, said Richard Ciccarone, president emeritus at Merritt Research Services, an Investortools company.
"I was introduced to him in the 1990s by an investment banker, and I was swept away by him, because he was a true professional," Ciccarone said. "I had not come across any government auditor who could engage like Hugh, but in a serious way. He was an accountant by training, and he took that training into public service."
Dorrian was always "Mister Dorrian" to his colleagues, said Arlene Bohner, managing director and head of U.S. public finance at Fitch Ratings, who worked closely with Dorrian and according to Kilgore gave Dorrian his first triple-A rating. "It meant the world to him," Kilgore said.
"I think that was a sign of the universal respect he earned over many decades in our industry," Bohner said by email. "He was kind and good natured and always had a complete command of all the complexities involved with managing the city's debt and financial details. He served with integrity, and his legacy is the high standard he set for ethical, steady public service in Columbus."
A graduate of the Ohio State University, Dorrian served in the U.S. Army before earning his B.S. in accounting. In addition to his elected service, he taught for over two decades at Ohio State's John Glenn School of Public Affairs. He also served in the Diocese of Columbus and earned the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice medal from Pope John Paul II in 1992, according to
Dorrian treated everyone with respect, Ciccarone said, and "would light up when he'd see somebody." He had an insatiable curiosity for all things public finance and a knack for conversation.
"He loved the art of discourse," Kilgore said. "Dorrian was something. He was the best of public service."
Kilgore said she first got to know Dorrian as "Julia's dad." Working on his daughter's campaign for judge as a senior at the Ohio State University, she discovered she and Dorrian had a shared interest in history.
When she was approaching graduation, Dorrian invited her to apply for a position in his office. Years later, after introducing Kilgore to the world of public finance and mentoring her "exceptionally well," he asked Kilgore to come back from the private sector, where she was by then working in the municipal advisory space, and run for Columbus auditor.
"On my first day in office — the first time someone new had been in that seat for nearly 50 years — he left me this beautiful, eloquent note that was titled, 'The things you should know on your first day as city auditor,'" Kilgore said. "The first couple of lines were about service and the honor of the role; the independence that the fiscal arm should have, and… notes about just what was happening financially."
There was something missing from the note, however. Kilgore discovered what it was when she drove the auditor's city car to the Ohio State campus the next day.
As she piloted the old Chevy northward and tried to make a tight turn, Kilgore realized the power steering was broken. It was also "absolutely freezing," and it dawned on her that the heat was out.
When she joked with Dorrian about the state of the car, she recalled, he said, "The car was always good enough for me. That's not where I wanted to spend city money."
Through his example, Dorrian taught Kilgore that public service is an honor, "and you treat it that way every day," Kilgore said. He also taught her that you don't have to be the smartest person in the room, but you do have to be the most prepared. Lastly, he taught her to communicate plainly, that "clarity is a public service," she said.
Dorrian was "a rock star" in Columbus, Ciccarone said, and the former auditor led the way on many things.
In 1997, Dorrian
In 1998, a judge ruled that the bonds
"He always made sure that his audit was out promptly, and for a big city, that was difficult to do," Ciccarone said. "He never had an audit longer than 133 days, and it got to be as low as 83 days in 2014. When we average for all cities, you can see that this was something special."
Ciccarone added he believes Dorrian deserved more national attention than he got.
"You can really see that he was all about service," he said. "He made his government transparent to all stakeholders."
Ciccarone was surprised to learn from an obituary that Dorrian was religious. The late auditor was not someone who wore his piety on his sleeve, he said.
"I never knew that about his faith, but he lived what he believed," Ciccarone said. "He did not put himself first."
Dorrian is survived by his children Julia Dorrian, Margaret Lombardo, Mary Jeffrey and Hugh "Joe" Dorrian; and his grandchildren Joe, Eileen and Thomas Jeffrey; Patrick, Grace, Bridget and Maggie Lombardo; Hugh Robinson; and Catherine and Joseph Dorrian, as well as his sister Mary Pulsinelli and many nieces and nephews.
Visitation will be held on Thursday at Egan-Ryan Funeral Home, 4661 Kenny Road in Columbus, followed by a Mass of Christian Burial Friday at 10:30 a.m., at St. Timothy Catholic Church in Columbus.
