About TASBO

In 1965, John Freeman, Assistant Superintendent, Business Affairs, Bob Davis, Director of Accounting, and Pat Wills, Director of Purchasing and Warehousing, all from Memphis City Schools, attended the ASBO Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

During that conference, the three of them met with Jim McCullough, Assistant Superintendent for Business Affairs for the Chattanooga School System, and discussed the feasibility of forming a state organization.  The original idea was that a state organization would be of benefit to all school business people in the state, so that additional resources could be made available.  They all considered it a good idea. 

In 1966, at the Tennessee Superintendent's Conference in Gatlinburg, twenty-two business officials met at the Mountain View Hotel and put together the details of the organization, which would become known as the Tennessee Association of School Business Officials (TASBO).

The next year, 1967, the first annual convention of TASBO was held at the Holiday Inn in Columbia, Tennessee, with the following officers:

James D. McCullough, President

John P. Freeman, President Elect

Randell L. Jewell, Secretary/Treasurer

Robert E. Davis, Director (1 Year)

John K. Butler, Director (2 Years)

James M. Colmey, Director, (3 Years)

The first three conferences were held in Columbia, Jackson and Cleveland.  In 1969, the membership voted at the Cleveland conference to start rotating between the large cities of Knoxville (East TN), Nashville (Middle TN) and Memphis (West TN).  This was done until 1977, when Chattanooga was added to the rotation.

The TASBO Distinguished Service Award was added at the 1970 conference in Nashville.  Commissioner J. Howard Warf receive the first award, and it has been presented each year since.  The conference has grown to attract over 500 school business officials and other school business personnel from across Tennessee and hosts in excess of 50 exhibitors each year.

In 2010 the TASBO Distinguished Service Award was changed to the James D. McCullough Distinguish Service Award in honor of the first president of TASBO and the second recipient of the award.

TASBO CHARTER MEMBERS