Accounting Historians Notebook Volume 37 Number 2 October 2014 Article 2 October 2014 Accounting Historians Notebook, 2014, Vol. 37, no. 2 (October) [whole issue] Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/aah_notebook Part of the Accounting Commons, and the Taxation Commons Recommended Citation (2014) "Accounting Historians Notebook, 2014, Vol. 37, no. 2 (October) [whole issue]," Accounting Historians Notebook: Vol. 37 : No. 2 , Article 2. Available at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/aah_notebook/vol37/iss2/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Archival Digital Accounting Collection at eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in Accounting Historians Notebook by an authorized editor of eGrove. For more information, please contact [email protected]. et al.: Accounting Historians Notebook, 2014, Vol. 37, no. 2 The Accounting Historians Notebook Vol. 37, No. 2 © Academy of Accounting Historians October 2014 Academy Loses Past President, Life Member, Edward N. Coffman Edward “Ed” Coffman grew up in the ward L. Flippen, now an attorney with small town of West Point, Virginia. After McGuireWoods and a former rector of graduating from high school he worked the VCU Board of Visitors. The two re- at the local paper mill with other mem- mained close friends for 52 years. bers of his family, including his father. When Coffman decided to attend college “There was nothing he wouldn’t do for in 1962, he became the first in his family his family and friends,” Flippen said. “Ed to do so. always put others first, and yet, at the same time, he was able to be highly ac- At Virginia Commonwealth University, complished, doing his job effectively and Coffman met fellow undergraduate Ed- efficiently. Not surprisingly, he was very popular with students, and developed strong relationships with the faculty. “As highly accomplished as Ed was, he never bragged [about himself]. He bragged about his family, he bragged about his friends. He bragged about his VCU colleagues. He was the most hum- ble person I have ever known.” After earning both undergraduate and master's degrees at VCU, Coffman taught in the Department of Accounting from 1966 to 1968. He left to pursue his doc- torate at George Washington University, but in 1970 returned to his teaching posi- tion at the School of Business, where he spent the rest of his career. In total, Coffman taught in the Department of (Continued on page 3) The Accounting Historians Notebook, October 2014 1 Published by eGrove, 2014 1 Accounting Historians Notebook, Vol. 37 [2014], No. 2, Art. 2 THE ACADEMY OF ACCOUNTING HISTORIANS http://aahhq.org ACADEMY OFFICERS President Vice President – Partnerships Massimo Sargiacomo Robert Colson University G.d'Annunzio of Pescara, Italy Baruch College CUNY President-Elect Secretary Massimo Sargiacomo Stephanie Moussalli University G.d'Annunzio of Pescara, Italy University of Mississippi Vice President – Communications Treasurer Yvette Lazdowski Jennifer Reynolds-Moehrle Plymouth State University University of Missouri-St. Louis ACADEMY TRUSTEES Malcolm Anderson Cheryl McWatters Cardiff University University of Ottawa Deidre Collier David McCollum-Oldroyd Farleigh Dickinson University Durham University Dale Flesher Gary J. Previts, Chair University of Mississippi Case Western Reserve University Daoyang Guo Lúcia Lima Rodrigues Zhongnan University of Econ & Law Universidade do Minho Oktay Guvemli Alan Sangster Marmara University – Retired Griffith University Karen Hooks Gregory Waymire Florida Atlantic University Emory University Mikhail Kuter Peter Wolnizer Kuban State University University of Sydney, Emeritus Yoshinao Matsumoto Mary S. Stone, Corporate Agent Kansai University The University of Alabama James McKinney University of Maryland THE ACCOUNTING HISTORIANS NOTEBOOK To submit items to the Accounting Historians Notebook, please contact the Academy Administrator, Tiffany Welch, at [email protected], (216) 368-2058 or the address below. ATTN: Tiffany Welch Academy of Accounting Historians Weatherhead School of Management 10900 Euclid Avenue Cleveland, OH 44106-7235 2 The Accounting Historians Notebook, October 2014 https://egrove.olemiss.edu/aah_notebook/vol37/iss2/2 2 et al.: Accounting Historians Notebook, 2014, Vol. 37, no. 2 (Continued from page 1) Accounting for 46 years, five of which he served as chair. Coffman also was a prolific author of academic books and journal articles. He was a visiting profes- sor at universities across the globe, and received numerous awards, including the Outstanding Accounting Educator Award of the Virginia Society of CPAs. Coffman’s accomplishments, modesty, openness and friendship so impressed Rasoul Tondkar, Ph.D., in 1979, that when Tondkar was interviewing for a faculty position, he chose VCU. Ed examines an original Pacioli at the Williams Library at Ole Miss Tondkar remembers Edward Coffman: history research with former doctoral “When I arrived at VCU, Ed helped me students including Robert Russ and with my teaching, research and service Helen Roybark currently faculty mem- responsibilities. He always promoted the bers at different universities. Academy and accounting history re- search at VCU. When I joined VCU in I worked with Ed until he retired; he was 1980, Ed encouraged me to join the a colleague for 32 years. I have been Academy. After becoming a member trying to do what he did for me for my and working with Ed, with his encour- students, colleagues and others so that agement and help I joined several of the Ed’s legacy of kindness, caring and gen- Academy’s committees, served as co- erosity would continue forever. I can tell editor of the third volume of the Working you that I sorely miss my friend and my Paper Series, served as Treasurer, and mentor.” finally as President in 1997. Coffman passed away July 24, 2014 at Ed also promoted research in accounting the age of 72 and is survived by wife, history at VCU with colleagues and doc- Nell; son and daughter-in-law, John and toral students. Working with Ed, we Carey Taylor; and numerous grand- published an article entitled “Integrating daughters, sisters, nieces and nephews. Accounting History into Financial Ac- counting Courses,” published in Issues in Memorial contributions may be made to Accounting Education and co-edited two the Ed and Nell Coffman Faculty En- books entitled Historical Perspectives of dowment Fund (select “other,” then type Selected Financial Accounting Topics. in “Coffman Faculty Fund”), or Commu- Furthermore, Ed worked very actively nity Missions, First Baptist Church, with doctoral students encouraging them Richmond, Virginia. to undertake research in accounting his- tory. To my knowledge, he has co- authored several articles on accounting (Continued on page 5) The Accounting Historians Notebook, October 2014 3 Published by eGrove, 2014 3 Accounting Historians Notebook, Vol. 37 [2014], No. 2, Art. 2 Academy Member Spotlight: Prof. Mikhail I. Kuter During the period of economy reorienta- tion towards market relations Mikhail I. Kuter was the author of the first Russian- language textbook on the theory of ac- counting. Russia has never taken part in archival research. In addition, the conse- quences of the Iron Curtain negatively affected the access to published sources concerning this field of study. Colleagues from Italy, Great Britain, the United States of America and France considera- bly helped to replenish the library of Pro- fessor Kuter. However, the analysis of numerous works of leading western sci- entists over the last hundred years, the authors of the commentaries on Pacioli’s Treatise in particular, allowed to draw 35,000 photocopies of accounts from the attention to the lack of consensus on sev- first medieval books of Italian companies eral issues. One of the reasons, as it has been formed and systematized in seemed to the Russian Professor, was the Professor’s electronic archives. This al- fact that the authors do not always relate lows to continue the research in labora- their arguments to the archival materials, tory conditions outside the archives. the interest in which after the second Some points that are of scientific interest third of the last century, the era of (early intermediate and closing “Losses Federigo Melis and Raymond de Roover, and Profits” accounts, trial balances of was significantly diminished. various kinds, early accounting state- ments), which have never been men- With the access to the archives of Genoa, tioned before, have been considered. Florence and Prato, Professor Kuter tried to apply the method of logical and ana- The Russian scientist has been granted lytical modeling to the archival research, the right to publish the copies. that is the construction of flowchart link- ing into a single unit all the transactions The results of the research are regularly of separate accounting cycle books, and reported at the AAA and the EAA annual on this basis, to identify the tendency to congresses. accounting registers and accounting pro- cedures development. The account books The following scientific evaluation of of Farolfi’s branch in Provence (1299- Professor Kuter’s activities was given by 1300), Massaries of the commune of one of the central Russian economic Genoa (1340-1341), accounting cycle journals:”In recent decades Kuban State books of Francesco Datini’s companies University has enhanced its scientific in Avignon, Pisa and Barcelona from 1363 to 1410 were studied. More than (Continued on page 5) 4 The Accounting Historians Notebook, October 2014 https://egrove.olemiss.edu/aah_notebook/vol37/iss2/2 4 et al.: Accounting Historians Notebook, 2014, Vol. 37, no. 2 (Continued from page 4) previous periods in history comparing different accounting approaches of the status due to the activity at the Depart- Italian accounting schools. The specific ment of Accounting and Audit where character of the research lies in the use of Doctor of Economics, Professor M.I. the source accounting documents from Kuter and his followers have been carry- the Italian archives. The systematization ing out their research in the sphere of of the material on the history of account- accounting history.