Alumni Profile
Carolyn "Lynn" Dibble Metzger
BS'72, MS'75
Partner at Metzger, Mancini, and Lackner, South Bend, Ind.
"It was a lot of fun learning to fly. … I was around 40 when I started flying.
There is great independence in flying. I have flown in Alaska, the Pacific, and in most of the states."
Carolyn "Lynn" Dibble Metzger
Pioneering advocate and all-around high-flyer, this South Bend resident proves that you can overcome age, circumstance, or any other obstacles — and that you can have a good time along the way.
When people say that they're planning for a child's education, it usually involves saving what they can and eventually writing some big checks. Usually, but this is not always the case.
When Lynn Metzger was standing in line with her sons as they registered for college classes, she was not being an overprotective mother. No, she too, was going back to school. Though she hadn't been in a classroom in 30 years, she felt the time was right, and she's never let adventure induce fear.
"Oh, I had a lot of fun. My son changed his curriculum to be in his mother's class. It was a public-speaking class and he gave a speech on 'Going to school with Mum.' Back then there were only two women in the class," says Metzger. "Times were different then," Metzger says. "You would not believe some of the stories. One teacher had what he called 'ladies' day.' This was the one day in the whole semester when he would ask us questions." When she graduated, Metzger was the first woman to earn a B.S. in business at IU South Bend. She completed her studies with a master's degree in 1975.
"I always worked outside the home except for the time that I was having the boys. I had three children in 34 months — that's hard work," says Metzger.
After finishing her coursework she agreed to become a partner in the CPA firm that she founded with her husband Dale Metzger in 1956. Two years later she was elected to the board of directors of the Indiana Association of Certified Public Accountants. In 1989, Metzger was the Indiana CPA Society's public-service award winner and she was honored for her outstanding contributions to her community by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. What Metzger really enjoys is working with widows and widowers. "I tell women that independence is spelled m-o-n-e-y. I made sure I had my own money. I started saving when I was 18. In the old days men could leave their wives with nothing. People criticized me for working outside the home, but I needed to be busy."
Metzger has played a prominent role in many organizations — Hoosiers for Higher Education and the American Woman's Society of CPAs, to name but a few — but maybe it is her involvement in the Ninety-Nines International Women Pilot Service that has given her the most pleasure.
"It was a lot of fun learning to fly. When I was young I used to go out in my backyard and watch the planes overhead. Years later, I was working at an automotive dealer when this man wanted to pay for the repairs on his car by giving me flying lessons," says Metzger. "After some time, he got me accepted to his flying club. I was the only woman in the club. I was around 40 when I started flying. There is great independence in flying. I have flown in Alaska, the Pacific, and in most of the states. I liked to fly and my husband didn't object, especially when I could fly him to business meetings."
No longer a pilot, her feet are firmly on the ground, but she shows no sign of slowing down and she has no plans to retire. "In two years' time it will be the firm's 15th anniversary and in three years I will have been filling out 1040s for 65 years," says Metzger. "But I really like what I do, so why stop?"