Clarence John Hickling, 76, accountant

Clarence John Hickling, 76, of Willingboro, an accountant and former president of the Burlington County Black Business and Professional Association, died Saturday, June 21, of heart failure at Our Lady of Lourdes Medical Center in Camden.

In 1991, Mr. Hickling, known as John, was one of the founders and the first president of the Caribbean Association of Southern New Jersey.

"The first meeting was held at John's house," said Kenneth Griffith, also a founder, who served as board chairman from 2010 to 2012.

The two had met on a bus in 1984, when Griffith, a native of Guyana, heard Mr. Hickling's Jamaican accent.

"I introduced him to other people from the Caribbean," Griffith said, and from that the association was born.

Willingboro was "a very mixed area, with a high population of Caribbean people at that time," he said.

The founders focused on their friends' youngsters, "to nurture them with the upbringing we had in the Caribbean."

The association began to offer college scholarships, he said, and Mr. Hickling not only recruited new members, but also became the group's treasurer because of his accounting background.

"He did a good job," Griffith said.

Born in Spanish Town, Jamaica, Mr. Hickling graduated from the College of Arts, Science, and Technology, now the University of Technology, Jamaica, in Kingston, his wife, Elaine, said.

"We came up here in 1978" from Jamaica, his wife said, and he spent much of his career as an accountant in the Manhattan office of the former Prudential Securities, the financial services arm of Prudential Financial.

Mr. Hickling retired in 1998, she said, and continued his longtime private practice in tax preparation.

He was a former member of the National Association of Tax Practitioners - now the National Association of Tax Professionals - and the American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers.

He was a former deputy grand knight in the Knights of Columbus.

Besides his wife, Mr. Hickling is survived by a son, Sean; a daughter, Sandra King; and three grandchildren.

A visitation was set from 9:30 a.m. Friday, June 27, at the Goes-Scolieri Funeral Home, 212 Levitt Parkway, Willingboro, N.J. 08046, before an 11 a.m. Funeral Mass at Corpus Christi Church, 11 S. Sunset Rd., Willingboro, with interment in Lakeview Memorial Park, Cinnaminson.

Donations may be sent to the American Heart Association at www.heart.org.

Condolences may be offered to the family at the funeral home at the above address.