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Medal for Service to the Profession in 1979, admission to the Accounting Hall of Fame in 1978, and president of the American Account-ing Association in 1965.
Though retired from formal teaching, Mautz continues to remain actively interested in the current development of accounting.
Vernon K. Zimmerman
Bibliography
Burns, T.J., and E.N. Coffman. The Account-ing Hall of Fame: Profiles of Fifty Mem-bers. Columbus, OH: College of Busi-ness, Ohio State University, 1991. Mautz, R.K. "A Few Words for Historical Cost," Financial Executive, January 1973, pp. 23-27, 60. . Effect of Circumstances on the Appli-cation of Accounting Principles. New York: Financial Executives Research Foundation, 1972.
. Financial Reporting in Diversified
Companies. New York: Financial Execu-tives Research Foundation, 1968.
. "Place of Postulates in Accounting,"
Journal of Accountancy, January 1965, pp. 46-49.
and F.L. Neumann. Corporate Audit
Committees. Urbana, IL: Bureau of Eco-nomic and Business Research, University of Illinois, 1970.
and Others. Internal Control in U.S.
Corporations: The State of the Art. New York: Financial Executives Research Foundation, 1980.
and H.A. Sharaf. The Philosophy of
Auditing. Sarasota, FL: American Ac-counting Association, 1961.
See also ACCOUNTING HALL OF FAME; AMERI-CAN ACCOUNTING ASSOCIATION; AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUN-TANTS; AUDIT COMMITTEES; BIG EIGHT AC-COUNTING FIRMS; CASH FLOW ACCOUNTING; COST ACCOUNTING STANDARDS BOARD; EX-TERNAL AUDITING; HISTORICAL COST; INDE-PENDENCE OF EXTERNAL AUDITORS; INTER-NAL CONTROL; PUBLIC OVERSIGHT BOARD; UNIFORMITY
May, George Oliver (1875-1961)
George Oliver May was born May 22, 1875, at Teignmouth, Devonshire, England. He joined the London office of Price Waterhouse in 1897
and later that year came to the United States and joined the staff of Jones, Caesar and Com-pany, which was an affiliate firm of Price Waterhouse in the United States. He was admit-ted to the partnership of Price Waterhouse in 1902, was named senior partner in 1911, and continued in that capacity until 1927 when he stepped down from active practice in order to devote his energies to professional matters, pri-marily through the American Institute of Ac-countants. He retired from Price Waterhouse in 1940 but continued to be active in the profes-sion almost until the time of his death on May 25,1961. His most significant contributions to the development of accounting thought came after he stepped down from active practice in 1927. This coincided with what was probably the most significant period in the development of accounting—the 1930s. May was an intellec-tual and was interested in a wide variety of ar-eas in addition to accounting, including eco-nomics, taxation, law, and philosophy.
Probably because of his British back-ground, May was a pragmatist. His pragmatic influence can be clearly seen in the work of the Special Committee on Cooperation with Stock Exchanges (1932-1934), which was chaired by May. It is also reflected in the output of the Committee on Accounting Procedure, of which May was the active head for the first four years from its inception in 1936 and on which he re-mained as a member until 1944.
May considered his service on the Special Committee on Cooperation with Stock Ex-changes to be his greatest contribution to the profession. The correspondence between this committee and the Committee on Stock List of the New York Stock Exchange clearly reflects his views. May believed that it was important that the public be educated as to both the sig-nificance and the limitations of financial state-ments. He reasoned that financial statements reflect events that occur in a world of uncer-tainty and cannot reflect a greater degree of certainty than do those events. May stressed the conventional nature of accounting, and he be-lieved that corporations should choose their own methods of accounting, should disclose these methods, and should apply them consis-tently. He believed that accounting is largely conventional, should serve a useful social pur-pose and should change with changes in eco-nomic conditions and social policies.
May's pragmatic influence was felt in the approach taken by the Committee on Account-
MAY,
GEORGE OLIVER (1875-1961) 407
Object Description
| Title |
History of accounting: An international Encyclopedia |
| Author |
Chatfield, Michael Vangermeersch, Richard |
| Subject |
Accounting -- History |
| Date-Issued | 1996 |
| Source | Originally published by Garland Publishing, Inc. |
| Rights | Copyright and permission to reprint held by: Academy of Accounting Hitorians |
| Type | Text |
| Format | PDF scanned at 400dpi with corrected OCR |
| Digital Publisher | University of Mississippi Libraries. Accounting Collection |
| Date-Digitally Created | 2011 |
| Language | eng |
| Identifier | vangermeersch |
