Profession's leaders lecture for the future, TRB&S Foundation provides initial funds;

              Profession's Leaders
Lecture for the Future
TRB&S Foundation Provides Initial Funds
Two of America's most distinguished accountants de­livered
lectures at Michigan State University recently for
eventual use in the 21st century. They were the first.of 10
professional and academic leaders who will be invited to
place their ideas and concepts into a new videotape library
at MSU.
Dr. W. A. Paton, professor emeritus of accounting at
the University of Michigan, author of 20 books, and more
than 100 professional articles, taped the first lecture.
Carman G. Blough, former chief accountant of the Secur­ities
and Exchange Commission who has had a long and
distinguished professional career, followed two days later.
Dr. Herbert E. Miller, MSU professor of accounting
who is planning the library, said:
"We know students now and in the future will be inter­ested
because the work of Paton and Blough will be stud­ied
for the next 40 or 50 years, or even longer."
Although the tapes will be available for viewing imme­diately,
Dr. Miller said, their full potential may not be
reached for decades. Students will not only read the works
of these men, Dr. Miller added, but they will have a
chance to see them in action.
The hour-long lectures will deal largely with concepts
instead of current practices and will be of interest primar­ily
to graduate students. Other universities with graduate
courses in accounting will have access to the library.
The Touche, Ross, Bailey & Smart Foundation, which
provided the initial funds for the preparation of this series,
has given support to a number of educational projects
since its organization in 1958. Two of these which espe­cially
generated interest in the profession are the Journal
of Accounting Research (partially supported by the
Foundation since its first volume) and Carnegie Tech­nology's
booklet on The Future of Accounting Education.
The latter was distributed by the American Institute to
deans and accounting professors throughout the country.
When the TRB&S partners started the Foundation
seven years ago, they did so because they felt that there
was a definite need for financial help with projects not
usually included in a university budget. The Board of
Trustees stated that "the purpose of the grants will be to
encourage research and educational activities in the field
of business management, especially accounting."
The Foundation is interested in exploring other proj­ects
which meet its purposes, realizing, of course, that the
number of projects which it can support is limited. The
Trustees are particularly interested in projects that result
in articles, monographs, or educational materials.
32 THE QUARTERLY