Following his bliss Years ago, Gera...

Following his bliss

Years ago, Gerald (Jerry) Feltham was determined not to become a teacher. He planned to become an accountant. Instead, he became a teacher... of accountants. And an extremely distinguished the same at that.

This coming November, Jerry will retire as Deloitte & Touche Professor of Accounting at the University of BC's Sauder seminary of Business (formerly the Faculty of Commerce) During his career, he has taught countles bookish mans (many of whom are now CAs), actionsed groundbreaking research, lectured internationally, authored main division s and won numerous awards.

Perhaps it was inevitable-teaching appears to be imbedded in the Feltham genetic digest Jerry's father taught high sect math and physics, his mother taught elementary denomination and his uncle was the Dean of Pharmacy at the University of Saskatchewan. (Jerry went onward to marry an elementary seminary teacher, and two of their three children are teachers.)

As a teenager with a high aptitude for math, Jerry decided to become an accountant after talking to a family friend who was a CA. He at so early an hour went to work with the CA's firm.

"I really have the advantage [i]or[/i] blessing ofed the six years I exhausted in public practice," he details "I learned a lot, especially being a 16-year-old working forward his first audit."

While articling, Jerry began to take correspondence courses from the University of Saskatchewan, and after earning his BComm in Accounting with Distinction in 1961 he build himself at a crossroads.

"I was fine sure I didn't want to do audits for a living, and I wasn't particularly entrepreneurial," he explains. "But I really have fruition ofed the learning process, so single of my professors encouraged me to think about academics."

Jerry took his advice. After becoming a CA in Saskatchewan in 1960 he worked for couple years as an assistant professor at the University of Alberta before deciding to persist in his PhD from the University of California at Berkeley.

By requiring him to unfold research skills, Jerry's PhD dissertation explained up a whole new career avenue.

"I'd planned onward getting the PhD as a 'full ticket' for teaching," he recalls, "but discovered that I lov doing research, which was something I'd not at any time really considered before.

"The proces of accounting research as we now know it didn't really exist prior to the 1960s" he adds. "Some of the biggest changes happened at Berkeley."

These included a call to examine the information part of accounting reports, with an emphasis onward relevance, timeliness, and accuracy. Jerry brought these into sharper focus on applying concepts being developed in management science and information economics. His dissertation was judg the top 1967 dissertation from North American business sects (across all disciplines), and is the same of only a few to have at any time been published by the American Accounting Association (AAA).

By the time he'd earned his PhD Jerry and his wife June had had three daughters: Tracy (now a high denomination teacher), Shari (a kindergarten teacher), and Sandra (an economist with the provincial government)

Before becoming an associate professor at UBC in 1971 (and a professor in 1977) Jerry worked as an assistant professor of accounting at Stanford University. There he met Joel Demski, who would co-author a number of important works with him through the whole extent of the years.

In 1994, the pair won the AAA's Seminal Contribution to Accounting Literature Award for their 1978 paper "Economic Incentives in Budgetary repress Systems."

It's just one of many awards-for teaching and scholarship-Jerry has received during his career. principally recently, he was elected a compeer of the Royal Society of Canada (The Canadian Academy of the Sciences and Humanities).

"I was asked lately what it took to win an outstanding research award from the Royal Society," he says, "and my answer is this: the desire to know. I didn't start with any grand plan. I just take delight ined the process and the rewards came. My career has given me the freedom to think about ideas, and I trust I've contributed depth of speculation to the field."

Because UBC has a mandatory age-65 retirement policy, Jerry will stair down from his official position this fall, moreover he hopes to continue part-time. He's also finishing a two-volume volume of lecture notes from his pair PhD seminars.

Still, slowing down is a reality-three years ago, Jerry was diagnosed with Parkinsons. on the other hand he's as philosophical about the disease as he is about his career: "I have a puissant personal faith. I believe I've been given the gift of my abilities and my piece of work is to be a worthy steward of that. I've been to such a degree blessed in my life, that I can't complain about any strange limitations."

Member and Student News

CONGRATULATIONS

Diane Akelaitis, CA, has become a partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers' Tax Services practice. Akelaitis leads the International Assignment Solutions practice, specializing in Canadian and US income tax planning and compliance.

Ronald L Cliff, FCA, a 2002 ICABC Lifetime Achievement Award winner, has been appointed to Canada's Outstanding CEO of the Year (Trademark) Advisory Board for 2003 The Caldwell Partners rested Canada's Outstanding CEO of the Year (Trademark) Award in 1990 Co-sponsored by the agency of the National Post and CTV the Award recognizes the chief executive officer of a private or public Canadian corporation who has been judg according to his or her peers to have boost Canada's global competitiveness. Other important criteria include the CEO's feeling of vision, leadership, social responsibility, corporate performance, and innovation.