Warren W. Nissley: A Crusader for Collegiate Education

Abstract

Warren W. Nissley's intense dedication to public accounting led him to crusade for development of schools of accountancy and improvement of education of accountants. Nissley conceived and championed the Bureau for Placements, 1926–1932, which resulted in: public accounting firms recruiting college graduates and developing permanent professional staffs, publishing the first Institute career publication, academic and student awareness of public accounting, and improved quality of college programs and graduates. Nissley's campaign for independent schools of accountancy, 1928–1950, influenced the Institute's committee on education. Many elements of his recommendations may be recognized in the evolution and current developments of accounting education. However, Nissley would continue to express disappointment in the failure to establish separate professional, graduate level, schools of accountancy for public accounting.

The American Institute of Accountants’ aptitude testing experiment in the 1940s: An initiative to increase the supply of able accountants

“…With this important historical context in mind, there is no evidence that the Committee on the Selection of Personnel understood the nascent field of aptitude testing in non-inclusive terms. On the contrary, Warren W. Nissley – the Committee Chairman and the first Native American partner at the firm that later became EY – was a long-standing champion for more professional accounting opportunities for minorities and considered the aptitude testing programme as one such initiative (Slocum and Roberts, 1996). John L. Carey – who served as the committee's unofficial secretary through the 1940s – appears to have shared similar sentiments, as can be discerned from his remarks that aptitude testing would provide new opportunities for women seeking to enter the accounting profession (e.g., Carey, 1942, 1945b).…”

The American Institute of Accountants and the professionalization of auditing: The campaign to end temporary audit staff and promote the natural business year, 1923–1960

“…The efforts of the AIA’s Bureau for Placements, begun in 1926 to recruit more college graduates, was hindered by the fact that accounting firms offered only limited permanent positions (Slocum and Roberts, 1996: 96), as evidenced by this testimonial from “a bewildered young certified public accountant”:The colleges are graduating a number of men trained in accounting theory but inexperienced in business. This is right, but there is no place for them in the industry until the first of the year, and then only a very few can hope for more than a few weeks’ employment at scant pay … Is it right that a learned profession requiring so much training and skill of its employees should offer such intermittent employment?…”