Tribute to Professor Barry E. Cushing, PhD, CPA
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This spring, Barry Cushing, distinguished professor in the School of Accounting and Information Systems at the University of Utah, passed away after a long battle with cancer. He was 59 and is survived by his wife of 38 years, Cherry, and their four children, Dennis, Becky, Christy and Andy. He received a BA (1966, with high honor) and a PhD in Accounting (1969), both from Michigan State University.
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| Barry Cushing (far right), along with (from right) Reed Randall, Cherry Cushing, Marilyn Randall; and Bob, Daniel, and Natalie Allen, attended the Fiesta Bowl on January 1, 2005 to cheer on the University of Utah in its victory over the University of Pittsburgh. |
Jean C. Bedard, Northeastern University. One of the most rewarding aspects of service to the Auditing Section is the ability to get to know wonderful people like Barry Cushing. Barry was a very effective President of the Section. Among the goals he considered most important during his tenure was making Auditing Section activities more relevant to audit practitioners. As Barry noted in his President's Report in the Fall of 1997, "the academic discipline of auditing cannot make progress in the absence of significant involvement on the part of auditing professionals." Under his leadership, the Executive Committee and the standing committees undertook a number of initiatives aimed at improving communication between auditing academics and auditing practitioners. We still see the results of this commitment in many of today's Section activities.
During his illness, Barry and his wife came to Boston for a few weeks while he participated in an experimental trial of a new drug. I had the privilege of joining them for dinner one evening, and was so impressed by their courage. That evening, Barry discussed the nature and course of the treatment from the perspective of a researcher. His willingness to help others through participating in an experimental trial was just another example of his dedication to science and to humanity. We have lost a great friend.
Tim Bell, KPMG LLP. I had the distinct pleasure of working with Barry on a number of projects. One such project was the AAA Auditing Section Research Committee project that involved team-authoring a monograph entitled Auditing Practice, Research, and Education: A Productive Collaboration. Barry volunteered to take the lead-author role on the chapter entitled Risk Orientation, collaborating with Lyn Graham, Zoe-Vanna Palmrose, Robert Roussey and Ira Solomon. Barry and his team got out of the starting block way ahead of the other chapter teams and developed an engaging and enlightening discussion of the transformation of auditing in the U.S. over the past century toward the risk-based approach, and the role and impact of auditing research in this transformation. This team's performance, with Barry's leadership, and his heavy lifting on the research and writing of early drafts of the chapter, was a catalyst that sparked the other teams into action. The Risk Orientation chapter became the lead chapter in the monograph (published in 1995), and many later scholarly works have extracted quotes from, or referenced, that chapter. In 2003, the monograph received the Notable Contributions to the Auditing Literature Award from the Auditing Section, in no small part because of Barry's leadership. You have heard the saying "You are a gentleman and a scholar." Well, Barry was the real deal. I cannot think of anyone I have crossed paths with during my career who was more professional, polite, intellectually curious, competent and engaging as Barry. When I heard the news of his passing, my heart sank low.
Stanley F. Biggs, University of Connecticut. When I think of Barry Cushing, I think of an extremely competent person. My experience with Barry came from working with him on Auditing Section business. I can think of no one who was better at clearly identifying the real problem that needed to be addressed and then thoroughly working through to the solution. He had that uncanny ability to ask the critical questions that needed answers. In fact, that ability could sometimes make you feel as if you should have thought of the question yourself. Of course, Barry would never deliberately try to make you feel inadequate. It was just that you knew you were in the presence of a person who had great ability to see what the problem was and how to solve it. It is a tragedy to lose someone like Barry at the pinnacle of his career. He will be sorely missed.
Rajib Doogar, University of Illinois. My first and last images of Barry Cushing are of a scholar fully engaged in his work. Having transferred into the Penn State doctoral program with some coursework already behind me, I was looking for an advisor from day one. I found Barry to be easy to approach, serious about ideas, and always available, even on weekends. Once I was in his office discussing some aspect of the seminar paper for that week when he said "You should bring that up during the seminar." This was liberating, and since then I have learned a lot by asking questions. He had high standards and once told me "Most of us are lucky if we write one good paper in our whole life." Coming from someone whose scholarship I respected, that was inspiring. Even though I had a gift for making the dissertation process longer and harder than it needed to be, he was positive and upbeat through it all and in the subsequent years. His work habits reflected an attitude that good scholarship combines rigor, clarity of thought and expression, endless work and faith in one's intuition and ideas. Our last conversation was about his ongoing work on auditor skepticism, and towards the end of the conversation he said "I think I still have one more paper left in me." That just about sums up the Barry I knew. He never gave up on writing one more paper and we talked about Perfect Bayesian Equilibria to the end. Salut!
Marc J. LeClere, University of Illinois at Chicago. Barry and I first met in the summer of 1986. He had just relocated to Penn State and he and Cherry were trying to find his new office and our paths crossed. I had been assigned to Barry as a research assistant. I vaguely knew of Barry – he had interviewed at Penn State and I had read a couple of his papers. However, I was not immediately aware of all of his work and I certainly did not run out to read his "collected works" (as a more enterprising graduate student might have done). But as the years passed, I came to regard Barry and his work in an appreciative light that I did not possess as a graduate student. As my experiences and circles of colleagues grew, Barry's unassuming nature and eclectic interests became all the more obvious. Anyone who knew Barry would tell you that conversations with Barry were always along the lines of Barry asking "what are you working on" rather than "here is what I am working on." He was curious about your work - the papers you were writing, the areas in which you were currently reading, and the research issues that you were mulling over in your mind. I can recall Barry telling me stories of the origins of his paper on optimal accounting principles ("conversations with Mark Wolfson in a seminar") and his AIS textbook ("there seemed to be an urgent need that no one was recognizing"), but the stories emerged as a result of my prodding and queries rather than Barry's desire to talk about his work. Barry was genuinely interested in discussing the work of his colleagues and the direction in which their work was proceeding. He would talk about his own work if asked about it, but never sought to impress his work upon others. [He also loved to talk at great lengths about the NBA, the Utah Jazz, and the Michigan State Spartans]. With regards to his own body of work, Barry represented an academic that has all but vanished from the profession. He exemplified the conviviality of research – he conducted research because it was joyful and he enjoyed the good company provided by membership in a community of scholars. He was not concerned with "publication count", "notches", or "counting coup." Barry was interested in knowledge and scholarship and found pleasure in bringing ideas to fruition. No common theme underlies his work other than knowledge production. I call this "eclectic intellectualism." He published in the areas of accounting choice, optimization, standard setting, framework building, audit judgment, audit methodology, and accounting systems. In today's academic environment, individuals are discouraged from pursuing, or penalized for embracing, far-flung interests. Barry's work emphasized that intellectual freedom is a part of academic freedom and his work was driven by his own innate curiosity, not market forces. Barry died at an early age. His death is strongly felt by all because the absence of his uniqueness leaves a large void in our community.
David Plumlee, University of Utah (the following comments were delivered at Barry's memorial service). When I was asked to host Barry's memorial service, I was very flattered and honored to have a role in that special event. I thought about the things I would say and I finally decided that as part of the service I would tell about some things that Barry did when I was being recruited to the faculty at Utah. So, I decided to put them in writing to be included in the remembrance book for Barry's family.
I had been on the faculty at various schools prior to coming to Utah and, as is common with people who have been out of their PhD programs for some time, Utah invited me out to make a presentation. I arrived in the late evening, around nine o'clock, and Barry Cushing was there to pick me up. Barry's research papers were among the first that I ever read. So, I was enormously impressed that someone of his stature would come to the airport and pick me up. This small gesture still comes to mind when I think about my choice to join the faculty at Utah. It made me feel wanted and respected, and it gave me my first glimpse of the thoughtful, caring man that Barry Cushing was.
The second event in my recruitment happened prior to my actual interview. We were at the Auditing Section's annual meeting. During the meeting, I saw Barry in the halls and in presentations, but we didn't exchange much conversation. As I was leaving, I was at the airport and Barry came and sat next to me. Again, I was quite flattered to have this famous professor showing me attention. We began to talk and, shortly into our conversation, Barry said to me, "I've been asking people about you and they said you're a pretty good guy." This is another event that comes to mind when I think about Barry Cushing. There was no facade or pretence with Barry. What you heard was exactly what he thought or felt, and you didn't have to try to decipher some hidden meaning. I found this level of honesty endearing and refreshing.
One last event that involved Barry and my recruitment was when I actually came to interview. During that visit, Barry picked me up at the hotel took me to breakfast. I have been told that I am the only candidate in memory that Barry took to breakfast. That fact still makes me feel special among all those that the Utah accounting faculty has recruited.
These events were among the first encounters that I had with Barry. They showed me the honest, caring, forthright person he was. And, throughout our time together, my respect and affection for Barry grew as I repeatedly saw these traits shine through in everything that Barry did.
I miss Barry, but I am grateful to have known him. As a scholar he was a great role model that I strive to emulate. As a human being, he embodied so many traits that I admire and value.
Marshall Romney, Brigham Young University. Barry Cushing was a wonderful, caring human being. I first met him when I entered the Doctoral Program at the University of Texas – Austin. Though he did not know me very well my first year there, he was always very friendly, cordial, and approachable. In my second year, I was asked to teach using his new Accounting Information Systems textbook. This resulted in my getting to know him much better and the more I got to know him, the better I liked him. In fact, he was such a large influence on my life that I changed my emphasis to AIS and asked him to be my dissertation advisor. I could not have asked for a better advisor. He gave me many wonderful ideas. He expected a lot and motivated me to always do my best, as I did not want to let him down in any way. He was insightful, very prompt in returning material to me, and above all else kind and complimentary. He went way beyond what was expected of an advisor.
Several years after I graduated, he asked me to be the co-author on his text. We worked together on the text for 12 years and he was always the consummate professional. He worked tirelessly and always did more than his share. He listened to my ideas, implemented the ones that made sense, kindly explained why the not-so-good ideas did not make sense, and was tolerant of my beginning mistakes. He was brilliant and very creative and never put on airs. I am very proud to claim him as my mentor and, more importantly, my friend.
Charles H. Smith, The Pennsylvania State University. Barry and I were colleagues at The University of Texas at Austin and at Penn State. I shall always remember him as one who had a serious and sincere commitment to the accounting discipline, to accounting education, and to the practice of accounting. His commitment as an academic was always that of wanting to make a positive contribution through his many different involvements. For this reason, he chose carefully and wisely before accepting assignments. He was not a resume builder. He was not motivated by the possibility of having his name flashed loudly and clearly in neon lights.
Barry and I collaborated on a number of different projects (broadly defined) over the years. I shall never forget the proposal we made to the faculty at Texas aimed at improving the content and mode of delivery of the introductory accounting course. The nerve we had. We were mere assistant professors! The faculty listened ever so politely, and then ignored the document that we had placed before them. (In retrospect, our ideas were not very good—quite naive in fact. Our Texas colleagues were wise in rejecting them!)
When I joined Penn State as department chair in January 1987, I was ever so happy to have Barry as a colleague once again. We wanted to improve the research program (faculty research and the PhD program), and it was good having someone such as Barry on hand for support in the development of strategy, and for hard work—quality, meaningful hard work.
Barry's appointment by the American Accounting Association to the position of Director of Research in 1986 was just recognition and reward. It demonstrated that this particular "market" also can be efficient. It was most pleasing to see Barry being recognized for his sincere, quiet, and quality efforts in the vineyard that is university accounting education.
I have lost a good friend, and we have all lost an outstanding colleague.
Ira Solomon, University of Illinois. As a second-year doctoral student in 1977, I took a course on decision theory and information economics. Assistant Professor Barry Cushing was the instructor. I didn't know it at the time, but that experience—taking that course from Barry Cushing—would profoundly impact my career as an audit educator/scholar. Barry had recently returned from a sabbatical at UCLA where he sat in on courses taught by some of the pioneers in information economics. He immediately recognized the applicability of the ideas to accounting and auditing. Such applicability was not always obvious to others, but Barry made it transparent. Consistently, the concepts were not easy, but Barry helped us to penetrate them. Indeed whether it has been in a decision theory and information economics doctoral seminar, or an auditing topics course, or in information systems, or in comparing audit approaches, Barry Cushing made a career out of bringing clarity and transparency to what otherwise would be rather opaque topics and issues. In doing so he influenced in the most positive way legions of undergraduate and graduate students of accounting and auditing. I was pleased to have been able to recognize Barry formally by presenting him with the Auditing Section's 2002 Outstanding Audit Educator Award.
Wayne Thomas, Oklahoma University. I joined the faculty of the University of Utah in 1996. The faculty at Utah were very receptive of me, and Barry was no exception. Almost immediately he became my best friend. My favorite time of the day was going to Barry's office around 11:40 to go to basketball. We took the same route every time. When I returned to Salt Lake City the day of his funeral, I once again went to Barry's office and made the same walk to basketball, this time without him. The walk was too quiet, but it gave me a chance to think about all of the things we used to talk about?politics, weather, religion, culture, and life in general. The thing that I will take away the most about those conversations was his desire to do activities with his family. We often talked about a vacation or activity that his family had previously taken or the next one to come. I was amazed that he had done so much. No one has ever motivated me more than Barry to make sure that I enjoy all of the wonderful things of life with my kids.
Barry had such an energy for life, and that was reflected no better than on the basketball court. When I was playing with Barry, he was in his early and mid 50's. I often joked with him that he needed to start acting his age. He ran all over the court and never seemed to tire. When he was diagnosed with cancer in 2000, just a few months after I moved back to Oklahoma, I knew that he was in for a tough battle. But I also knew that if anyone would fight it to the end, it would be Barry. It is no surprise to me that he defied the odds for so long. He was a dear friend.
Arnie Wright, Boston College. I knew Barry well as a member of the Auditing Section Executive Committee when he was vice president and then president of the section, through reading his research, and through many conferences we attended. The thing I remember most about Barry was his relentless pursuit for excellence in everything he did, whether it be research, textbook writing, or serving the Auditing Section. Barry believed in what he did and wanted to make a real difference. And he accomplished this, as he very positively affected his colleagues, students, friends, and family. I always found Barry to be a positive, supportive person. You could count on him to provide thoughtful, constructive ideas. He always made it a point to come to me and others he knew to genuinely find out how I was doing and provide encouragement. Lastly, despite his many achievements, I always found Barry to be a humble person. After I congratulated him for receiving the prestigious Outstanding Auditing Educator Award from the Auditing Section in 2001-2002, he quietly thanked me and indicated he thought I had received the award also since he believed I and others in the section were as deserving of the award. In the end, Barry achieved a very significant accomplishment; he clearly made the world a better place. For this, he deserves the many tributes and the respect from his colleagues and friends.