Herb Tabak

CIPA ELF's Cofounder and Treasurer Emeritus, Herb Tabak, passed away in early 2021. Herb was a member of CIPA for more than seventeen years, and served on the Board of Directors of both CIPA ELF and CIPA. In addition to serving as the Chair of the CIPA EVVY awards for seven years, he served as Treasurer for both CIPA and CIPA ELF. Herb's contributions to both organizations were many, and he is greatly missed.

 

Herb truly is a CIPA legend. His daughter, Jill Tabak, shared that Herb "loved being a part of CIPA and enjoyed you all! It brought so much joy to his life being part of such a wonderful organization."

 

Herb was an award-winning author and photographer and was a regular contributing writer to the Summit Daily News and the monthly arts magazine Cultural Times. He unknowingly started the research for his book on Frank Craig in 2004 when he became a patient at Craig Hospital. After being stricken with transverse myelitis and paralyzed from the waist down, he wrote No Whining, an account of his rehabilitation at Craig Hospital. His later book, Craig Hospital: A Century of Rebuilding Lives, was published to celebrate the hospital's 100th anniversary in 2007.

 

Herb tried semi-retirement after twenty-five years as a practicing CPA before moving to Colorado and starting Summit Strategic Business Services, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in tax problems and asset protection. Drawing from his experiences as a 2,000+ hour commercial pilot flying small airplanes and hot air balloons, he wrote and published Where's the Runway? and Other Flying Stories in 2001, and joined CIPA a year later. Herb blessed CIPA with his independent publishing experiences and his wide knowledge of business and finance enhanced by academic credentials including MBA, JD, and PhD degrees.