Accounting Hall of Fame 2000 Induction: Joel S. Demski

August 14, 2000 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Remarks, Citation, and Response REMARKS by Professor Charles T. Horngren Stanford University Hall of Fame Member This occasion is a special honor and treat for me. I have know Joel Demski since 1963, when he was a superlative doctoral student at the University of Chicago. The middle 1960s were heady years for the doctoral program there. Among its students in accounting and finance were many individuals who have made noteworthy contributions to the scholarly literature and practice. Examples are such names as Demski, Beaver, Ball, Brown, Watts, Fama, Mike Jensen, Roll, and Scholes. I have watched Joel grow from a bright, leading doctoral student to become the leading researcher in the entire world regarding applications of information economics and agency theory to accounting. Along the way, Joel and I and our wives have become close friends. Millie has been a fabulous supporter and partner. Joel is a superb role model for academicians. For over 33 years, he has been a refreshing trailblazer in accounting research. His amazing productivity and sophistication continue to flourish. Joel is not merely a splendid researcher. He is an educator in the broadest sense. He is a treasure for any university. In particular, he has a set of collegial skills that raises the level of scholarship throughout a doctoral program and especially throughout the younger faculty. Joel and I were Stanford colleagues for eighteen years. In 1985, to my dismay, he departed for Yale. I said to him, "Joel, I looked forward to our growing old together here." He replied, "We have." Now I shall read the citation, which was prepared by Dan Jensen. CITATION prepared by Daniel L. Jensen The Ohio State University read by Charles T. Horngren Known for the originality and rigor of his research, this distinguished and consummate scholar has played a leading role in accounting research for over three decades. He was born in 1940 in Sturgis, Michigan, the second of five children born to George and Athalia Demski. Both his mother, who was a high school graduate, and his father, who did not complete grammar school, stressed the importance of education. In the early 1940s, the family moved to Pinconning, Michigan, where he spent his early years and where his father founded a small manufacturing company. His own interests and his parent's business led him to study engineering at the University of Michigan, where he arrived just after the launching of Sputnik and the resultant revitalization of engineering education. "After engineering school," he recalls, "I was not sufficiently intrigued by family business, the auto industry in general, or consulting to leave what I had discovered to be the joys of university life." Thus he remained at Michigan after his BSE in industrial engineering (1962) and enrolled in its MBA program where he encountered William A. Paton and took courses from Stephen A. Zeff and Samuel R. Hepworth, who kindled his interest in accounting and encouraged him to pursue a Ph.D. He received his MBA degree with high distinction in 1963 and, after reviewing business Ph.D. program catalogs in the University of Michigan library, he selected the University of Chicago because it appeared open to an emphasis on mathematics. He was awarded a Ford Foundation Fellowship and moved to Chicago. There he worked with Sidney Davidson, Nicholas Dopuch, Charles Horngren and a host of other faculty as well as fellow students such as William Beaver and Philip Brown. Charles Horngren became his advisor and led him through the experience of a dissertation and into a distinguished academic career. When he completed his Ph.D. in 1967, he took his first professorial position at Columbia University, where he worked with Carl L. Nelson. He recalls, "Chuck Horngren and the Chicago experience taught me how to think, and Carl taught me what it means to be a professor. …