Kelly Bullis
Early Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, my hero, John Bullis slipped into eternity. He’s now in the presence of Jesus, enjoying his new body with no pain or sickness, living in Heaven! He graduated having completed 87 trips around the sun.
On his last day on earth, some of his family were in his house and they sang some hymns. One of his favorites was “It Is Well With My Soul.” He had it memorized and belted it out, singing the base part of course.
John Bullis was a husband of 68 years, an Army captain, a choir singer, a church elder, a SUPER CPA and my dad. He founded this CPA firm in the fall of 1965. His first office was on Telegraph Street. He got his first clients by standing out on the corner of Telegraph and Carson, handing out business cards and offering to prepare tax returns.
He and my mom raised us four kids (I am the oldest) in Carson City. What a great community to grow up in!
John was the original author of these weekly newspaper articles. He passed the torch to me years ago.
My dad was a gentle, positive-thinking, loving and kind person. He took the time to get to know everyone he met and genuinely cared about each one.
One day I was introducing him to a new client, and I forgot his name! He leaned over and gently said, “It’s your middle name son.” Over the years, I learned I had two last names. I was always told, “Oh, you’re John’s son.” Yup! Bullis and Johnson… I go by both and proudly!
I have great memories of seeing my dad come home from work in his 1955 Chevy truck. Oh how I wish we still had that. What a cool truck that was. The starter was on the floor. Dad was a very skilled person who could start that truck up on a cold snowy morning. Working the choke, pumping the gas pedal and trying not to wear down the battery.
Our family spent MANY weekends and nights restoring the old HM Yerington mansion on the corner of Robinson and North Division streets. It’s always good to see the current owners taking such good care of it! We moved to our new building in January 1980. Of course, my dad went down with a folding chair, folding table, and electric calculator. He worked on a couple of projects in that building, surrounded by construction workers in December 1979 so he could start depreciating it on his tax return a year earlier. He loved to explain the “placed in service” rule. Later, Congress caught on to his trick and “fixed it” so you couldn’t do that any longer.
Any snowstorm, you would see my dad out puffing on his pipe while snow plowing the sidewalks and parking lot. It took me many years to finally talk him into hiring a professional snow removal company to do that job.
We’ll be putting together a memorial service at the Carson City Presbyterian church in the near future. You’re all welcome to come and share some stories about my dad, John Bullis. I will miss him until it’s my turn to graduate.
Have you heard? Acts 16:31 says, “Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
Kelly Bullis is a Certified Public Accountant in Carson City. Contact him at 775-882-4459. On the web at BullisAndCo.com. Also on Facebook.