Professor Robert Anthony Receives 2003 Lifetime Contribution to Management Accounting Award

Professor Robert Anthony was the recipient of the Management Accounting Section's Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2003 Mid-year Meeting held January 10-11, 2003 in San Diego. Professor Anthony is the Ross Graham Walker Professor of Management Control Systems Emeritus at the Harvard Business School (HBS). He earned his doctorate from Harvard in 1952 and spent his entire academic career at that institution.

Professor Anthony was one of the pioneers in the movement in accounting from cost accounting to management accounting. The concept of management accounting as the subject for a text began with his Management Accounting: Text and Cases whose first edition appeared in 1956 and continues to appear in a tenth edition. His prolific output of journal articles and textbooks focused on making accounting data useful to managers in both for profit and nonprofit organizations. The seminal monograph, Management Control Systems: A Framework for Analysis, published by the Harvard University Press in 1965, provided a stimulus for research in the then-nascent area of management control. It remains a frequently cited source by researchers in the management control area.

Professor Anthony has remained an active writer and researcher since his retirement from HBS. He continues to co-author the revisions of his various texts in management accounting, control and nonprofit accounting and maintains an active interest in accounting issues.

During his career he has received numerous honors including admission to the Accounting Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Outstanding Accounting Educator Award from the American Accounting Association in 1989. During 1973-1974 Professor Anthony was President of the American Accounting Association.

Professor Anthony is the second recipient of this award which was initiated by the section's executive committee in 2001. Last year's recipient was Professor William W. Cooper, professor emeritus at the University of Texas-Austin.

Above: Charles Horngren accepts the award for Robert Anthony (click to enlarge)