Famous Accountants
The first historical figure related to the
accounting profession was Luca Pacioli, a Franciscan
monk who lived during the time of Columbus. He published
the book Summa de Arithmetica, Geometrica, Propotioni
et Proportionalite in 1494 which described in detail
the accounting systems used in Venice and which were at
the core of Italian power and trading prowess. The world
eagerly received Pacioli’s work, and other nations
quickly attempted to organize their own finances around
this model.
Now, of course, the old Venetian accounting
method has morphed into a truly international profession
with intricacies and power that Pacioli could never have
imagined. Accounting plays such a central role in our
economic lives that it’s worth taking a look at some of
its more famous practitioners. Not all of them are
known for their accounting expertise, however, so here
are a handful of names that might surprise you:
J. P. Morgan.
Well, of course. He is the famous banker and financier
who began his career as an accountant on Wall Street.
After his father died and left him the family business,
J.P. Morgan went on to become a giant in the banking and
corporate worlds by acquiring undervalued and distressed
businesses and merging and re-capitalizing them. The
company is now well-known as JP Morgan Chase and is a
pillar of Wall Street.
John Grisham.
This famous novelist is well known for being a lawyer
prior to becoming a writer, but most people don’t know
that Mr. Grisham was also an accountant before he was a
lawyer. So, what did all that accounting “add up” to?
Well, it informed his writing to the point that he was
able to turn out highly-accurate, but fictionalized
accounts of intricate offshore banking shenanigans—much
to the publics’ enjoyment and his own handsome
remuneration.
Bob Newhart. When
this famous comedian left the U.S. Army years ago, he
got a job as an accountant in Chicago. He claims
that he abandoned accounting and went into comedy
because he just couldn’t get the hang of it. His idea of
proper accounting was to basically throw up his hands
whenever his employer’s cash drawer came up short—and
replenish the missing money from his own pocket—an
obviously unsustainable solution. But, he claims,
fortunately for him, it was while he was working as an
accountant that he began developing his famous telephone
routines. They were hilarious and the rest is history.
