2004

The Accounting Hall of Fame Inductions for 2004:                                Dennis R. Beresford, Gerald A. Feltham, and William J. Vatter

Three distinguished accountants were inducted into the Accounting Hall of Fame on Monday, August 9, 2004 at the American Accounting Association Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida. The 2004 inductees are Dennis R. Beresford, former chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board; Gerald A. Feltham, internationally-known accounting theoretician; and, the late William J. Vatter, influential professor and writer on cost accounting and related subjects. Honorees are selected by the Accounting Hall of Fame's international board of electors. Seventy-six influential and respected accountants from academe, accounting practice, government and business have been elected to the Accounting Hall of Fame since its establishment in 1950 at The Ohio State University.

Dennis R. Beresford

Dennis R. Beresford was the longest serving chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), serving from Jan. 1987 to June 1997. He led the Board's initial internationalization efforts as well as the establishment of the American Accounting Association-Financial Accounting Standards Board annual research conference. Beresford has been one of the most prolific practitioner authors with more than 100 articles in professional and academic journals. He has spoken to more than 500 audiences, including visits to nearly 100 U.S. and international universities. Before his FASB appointment, he was senior accounting technical partner for Ernst & Young and originated the firm's highly regarded Financial Reporting Developments publications. He is currently the E&Y Executive Professor at the University of Georgia and continues his professional leadership activities through the Institute of Management Accountants and the Financial Executives Research Foundation, and other professional and business organizations.

Gerald A. Feltham

Gerald A. Feltham, professor of accounting at the University of British Columbia, is one of accounting's most distinguished researchers. He has authored or coauthored 28 major papers and four influential books including Cost Determination: A Conceptual Approach (with Joel Demski) and the two-volume Economics of Accounting (with P.O. Christensen). His record of professional service is equally distinguished and includes many editorships and editorial board memberships as well as extensive work with doctoral students and service to professional organizations. His many honors and awards include three manuscript awards from the American Accounting Association and election as a Fellow of the Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Royal Society of Canada. A Chartered Accountant, he received a Ph.D. in accounting from the University of California, Berkeley. Upon completing his degree, he joined the accounting faculty at Stanford University where he remained until 1971, when he joined the accounting faculty at the University of British Columbia.

William J. Vatter

Throughout his academic career, William J. Vatter was a prolific and influential author and respected teacher and mentor. His contributions include a classic monograph on The Fund Theory of Accounting and its Implications for Financial Reports and a textbook that led the way into a new approach to teaching managerial accounting. In more than 50 published papers, he repeatedly demonstrated his capacity for versatility and insight and his ability to weave abstract theory and practical applications into a single context. He commissioned report to the Comptroller General, who was also chairman of the Cost Accounting Standards Board (CASB) broke new ground, especially on method of allocating costs, and was the principal conceptual basis of the CASB's initial pronouncements. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, he received degrees from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio; from the University of Chicago, where he served as a member of the accounting faculty from 1936 to 1957; in the latter year, he joined the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley, where he remained until his retirement in 1972. Professor Vatter died in 1990.

Members of Accounting Hall of Fame in attendance at induction ceremony on August 9, 2004: Back Row (left to right) : Charles T. Horngren (Stanford University), Arthur R. Wyatt (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Stephen A. Zeff (Rice University), James Don Edwards (University of Georgia), William H. Beaver (Stanford University); Front Row (left to right) : Sidney Davidson (University of Chicago), Dennis R. Beresford (University of Georgia), Gerald A. Feltham (University of British Columbia), Joel S. Demski (University of Florida).