RESPONSE
by
Charles T. Horngren

1990 Accounting Hall of Fame Inductee
Edmund W. Littlefield Professor of Accounting
Stanford University Graduate School of Business

Occasionally I give an after-dinner speech. This is the first time that I have given a before-breakfast speech. I know which audience wants a shorter speech, so I shall behave accordingly. Moreover, at this early hour, I do not intend to dwell on controversial accounting issues.
Obviously, I am overwhelmed and overjoyed to receive this lofty honor. I deeply appreciate being included in a roster of such distinguished accountants.

Learning and Gratitude

A professor’s career is heavily affected by his or her teachers, colleagues, and students. Mine is no exception. No matter where I have worked, I have always benefitted from the stimulation of those around me. Because I might carelessly overlook mentioning some deserving names, today I will not name specific individuals who have earned my gratitude. For the most part, they know their influence. I am indebted to each of them.
An academic career has been very satisfying for me. In particular, helping others to learn is a gratifying endeavor.

The teaching of accounting has provided concrete self-satisfaction. Compared to many subjects, the body of knowledge in accounting courses is relatively well-defined. So a teacher can obtain quick feedback on the amount learned by students, even on a day-to-day basis.

All in all, in over forty years of teaching, I have had at least 12,000 students in various classes. Because I habitually invite comments and questions, I invariably obtain useful knowledge and insights from students. As you can plainly see, I was not born yesterday. However, I am convinced that students have kept me younger than I would be otherwise.

Of course, there are cost and benefits from almost everything we do. Having had so many students, I always try to be on my best behavior. Big brother may not be watching, but a student may be looking — especially in airports. You can judge whether such a phenomenon is a cost or a benefit.

Every once in awhile, I get a note or a letter from a grateful student. Such kind words lighten my spirits enormously. Have you ever written an appreciative note to a former teacher? I remember, as an 18-year old army private, writing a thank-you letter to my stern, demanding, motivating high-school English teacher. It made me feel good that I took the time to recognize superb teaching. I especially urge the younger members of this audience to write at least one similar letter to a special teacher of theirs — not next year, but next week. Just do it.

Through the years, I have learned much from steadily interacting with practitioners in public accounting, financial officers, and managers of all kinds here and abroad. Almost without exception, they have been generous with their time, their information, and their thinking. I am a strong supporter of having more professors exploring all three sides of the triangle of teaching, research, and practice. The more who do so, the stronger all three sides will become.
An efficient way to learn from professors about accounting research and teaching is to join the American Accounting Association and attend its meetings. Similarly, an efficient way to learn about practice is to join, attend meetings, and be as active as possible in such organizations as the American Institute of CPAs and the National Association of Accountants. I wish that more professors did so. The triangle would be stronger and tighter.

Convoluted Paths Through Time

Earlier I aimed some words at the younger members of this audience. What follows will probably be of more interest to older than younger members. I’ll be mentioning some familiar names, not in the sense of gratitude, but in the sense of how relationships sometimes intertwine over many years.

1. For many summers I have been teaching in the Stanford Executive Program, which meets for eight weeks, five days a week, including July 4. On July 4, 1988,I happened to be teaching one of the three scheduled classes. The other two classes were taught by Hal Leavitt, the managerial psychologist, and Ezra Solomon, well-known in finance and economics. We had been colleagues at the University of Chicago in 1953, thirty-five years before. What is the probability of such an event? Careers, like all of life, take unex pected twists and turns.

2. Two of my four children have taken accounting courses. One incident seems worth noting. My oldest daughter has a degree from Stanford, 1980. When she was a sophomore, she was randomly assigned a dorm room. Her roommate turned out to be the granddaughter of H. A. Finney and the daughter of Steve Finney, partner of Touche Ross, Chicago office. (For those of you too young to know, H. A. Finney was a profilic author of accounting textbooks for Prentice-Hall for nearly half a century). Moreover, these two young women had independently enrolled in an undergraduate elementary accounting courses. Their textbook was Financial Accounting by Davidson, Stickney and Weil. Their teacher was Stan Baiman, a Visiting Professor.

3. When I was teaching at the University of Wisconsin-Mil-waukee, the senior member of the accounting faculty was Jim March. Incidentally, he wrote a book on cost accounting. Jim had several children with special talents. A son, John, rose to the top management at Arthur Anderson & Co. before departing to become a member of the FASB. Another son, Jim Jr., is my colleague at Stanford. He is a world-renowned researcher in organization theory. Jim Jr.’s son was as student in two of my classes at Stanford. So I have known three generations of Marches. The world sometimes seems small.

Non-Comments on Current Issues

Please note that I have said nothing yet today about recent developments in management accounting, financial accounting, and accounting education. Especially at this hour, I suspect that nobody here is disappointed.

Twenty years ago I gave a speech, “The Accounting Discipline in 1999”, at the annual meeting of the American Accounting Association. Not surprisingly, when one offers a flock of predictions, some of the predictions in that paper have held up well; others have not. I was a member of the APB in 1970, then the Czars of U. S. Accounting. I stand before you as a used czar. Although it was not a prediction, I commented that most of the time the APB feels like a lone tree in the midst of 1,000 dogs. Now, twenty years later, I’ll update that comment. Most of the time the FASB feels like a lone tree in the midst of 1,000 dogs. We live in times of turbulent change, but many things stay the same. This completes my commentary on current issues.

Conclusion

The greatest satisfaction of my professional life is that given the job to be done, and given the time available to do it, I have given my best. I have stressed to my children to try hard, do your best. That’s all we should ask of ourselves and others.

The least satisfaction has come from lack of time. With more time, my output would have had better quality. With more time, I would have been able to keep up with the bursting literature that overwhelms me increasingly each year.

During World War II, Winston Churchill was informed by one of his ministers of a noteworthy fact: “If all the brandy you have consumed in your lifetime were poured here, this spacious room would be filled to the top of your desk.” Gazing at the ceiling, Churchill replied, “So little done, so far to go.” That is my major message today — to my colleagues in accounting education, to accountants, to managers, and to students.

Given the history of our world, the arts of accounting and management are in their infancy. Developing our knowledge, skills, and attitudes begins in our universities. The foundations are laid there. As accounting educators, if we are to err in balancing between general concepts and specific techniques and descriptions, I favor erring toward the general. Moreover, our teaching should alert our students that their education here is primarily aimed at equipping them to learn for themselves throughout their professional lives.

Accounting and management education have advanced considerably since I was a student, but it has far to go. It merits serious efforts by all of us.

THE ACCOUNTING HALL OF FAME MEMBERSHIP Year Member
1950 George Oliver May*
Robert Hiester Montgomery*
William Andrew Paton
1951 Arthur Lowes Dickinson*
Henry Rand Hatfield*
1952 Elijah Watt Sells*
Victor Hermann Stempf*
1953 Arthur Edward Andersen*
Thomas Coleman Andrews*
Charles Ezra Sprague*
Joseph Edmund Sterrett*
*Deceased

1954 Carman George Blough*
Samuel John Broad*
Thomas Henry Sanders*
Hiram Thompson Scovill*
1955 Percival Flack Brundage*
1956 Ananias Charles Littleton*
1957 Roy Bernard Kester*
Hermann Clinton Miller*
1958 Harry Anson Finney*
Arthur Bevins Foye*
Donald Putman Perry*
1959 Marquis George Eaton*
1960 Maurice Hubert Stans
1961 Eric Louis Kohler*
1963 Andrew Barr
Lloyd Morey*
1964 Paul Franklin Grady*
Perry Empey Mason*
1965 James Loring Peirce
1968 George Davis Bailey*
John Lansing Carey*
William Welling Werntz*
1974 Robert Martin Trueblood*
1975 Leonard Paul Spacek
1976 John William Queenan
1977 Howard Irwin Ross*
1978 Robert Kuhn Mautz
1979 Maurice Moonitz
1980 Marshall Smith Armstrong
1981 Elmer Boyd Staats
1982 Herbert Elmer Miller
1983 Sidney Davidson
1984 Henry Alexander Benson
1985 Oscar Strand Gellein
1986 Robert Newton Anthony
1987 Philip Leroy Defliese
1988 Norton Moore Bedford
1989 Yuji Ijiri
1990 Charles Thomas Horngren *Deceased