Winther, Stave & Co., LLP was founded in 1966 and has grown to a staff of 28, including 20 CPAs, serving clients in 35 states and concentrated in Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Nebraska. Merlyn Winther opened a one-room office in an office complex in the Floete Building at 14 W 6th Street on December 1, 1966. This complex had a common receptionist. His wife, Sonna, an experienced legal secretary, was his typist. He acquired an old army desk and a brand new chair, which he uses to this day.The desk is long since gone.

Paul Stave and a young Gary Peters joined the firm in 1978. On January 1, 1979, Paul Stave became a partner and the firm became Winther, Stave & Co., LLP. Ron Bauermeister and Bill Orrison joined the partnership in 1981, at which time the whole first floor of the office complex was occupied by Winther, Stave & Co. Bill Orrison left the partnership in 1984 and Gary Peters became a partner in 1984.

On April 2, 1984, a fire on the top floor of the Floete Building destroyed the property. The entire office was severely damaged by water. We started carrying out to the street and parking lot our furnishings at 7:00 am and the 20 of us were joined by 35 other business people, two step vans and various pickups to relocate our office to an empty office space. By 3:00 pm, our furniture was cleaned and situated, our telephone system was installed, and our accounting machines and computers were operative. Our finest hour!

The current Spencer location was acquired and remodeled in 1984 after the fire episode. We took possession and opened January 1, 1985. It took two weeks to relocate as opposed to the one day emergency move.

Jeff Crew joined the firm in 1983 and became a partner in 1990.

The Milford office was acquired in August 1993; and due to our expanded staff, our current Spencer location was expanded in 1995.

Paul Stave and Ron Bauermeister retired from the partnership in 2011.

The firm has been in existence for 50 years and currently consists of 28 employees, 20 of which are CPAs. The firm name is well known in the local and surrounding communities and the once young Gary Peters is now the managing partner.

The firm is well experienced in all facets of auditing, accounting, consulting, tax and tax planning, and our firm was an early participant in the peer review audit system conducted by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and our firm has received unqualified opinions on each of its peer reviews.

The firm’s members are encouraged to be active in the community. Almost every service club in Spencer and many of the churches have one of our employees on their boards. We are most proud of this service.