Obituary∗

Allan Barton 3 March, 1933 – 9 June, 2012

Emeritus Professor Allan Barton, the scourge of poor accounting and fuzzyeconomic thinking, passed away from Cancer on Saturday 9th June, 2012, atSt Andrews Village in Canberra. Allan scripted his own funeral Service, whichwas held on Wednesday 13 June in St Andrews Canberra, and he was buried onFriday 15 June at the Springvale Cemetery in Springvale Victoria.

Allan Barton was Professor of Accounting at the Australian NationalUniversity for over 30 years and taught accounting to nearly three generationsof Canberra economics and accounting students. He was a tireless advocate ofKeynesian economics and a critic of the Chicago school free-market tradition.His sharpness of insight and strength of opinion remained undiminished as didhis output in academic publications and newspaper releases, challenging anyissue Allan regarded as an example of poor thinking.

Allan was born in Melbourne and educated at Melbourne High School. In 1950he began a Commerce course at the University of Melbourne, where he was thefirst person to do double honours in economics and accounting. After completinghis honours year, Allan tutored at Melbourne before going to Cambridge, wherehe completed a PhD under the supervision of Professor Sir Austin Robinson. Itwas there that Allan acquired his view of accounting as an economic measuringsystem and his bent towards Keynesian thought on the nature and roles ofgovernment.

In 1959 Allan returned from Cambridge to teach economics at Adelaide.During his time in Adelaide Allan developed much of his thinking about howaccounting fitted within the economic theory of business. He considered howeconomic theory could provide the basis for the development of accountingtheory for the measurement of financial performance and position of the firm,and also for decision making about business operations. From 1962 he was alsoHead of the Master of Business Management Program where he designed anddelivered one of the first MBA programs in Australia. Allan was eventuallypromoted to reader in 1966.

In 1967 Allan was appointed the Foundation Chair in the Accounting andBusiness Studies Disciplines at the newly established Macquarie University,

∗A version of this obituary was published in The Age (Melbourne), Thursday, 21st June 2012.

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teaching both economics and accounting courses. During the 1970s Allancontributed extensively to the debate regarding current cost accounting andthe impacts of inflation on business operations. His article on ‘Expectationsand Achievements in Income Theory’ was published in The Accounting Review in1974, and was included as compulsory reading in any study of accounting at thattime. Allan was the author of several textbooks with The Anatomy of Accounting(University of Queensland Press) being the best known. This represented amajor departure from the traditional approach to teaching accounting. Thistext was widely used in most Australian and many overseas universities.

In 1975 Allan was appointed as Professor and Head of the Department ofAccounting and Public Finance at the Australian National University. Allan’spersonal attributes of warmth, generosity, loyalty and companionship werewidely recognised together with his strong administrative ability and somewhatterrifying work ethic. At the heart was Allan’s commitment to serve others andhe served in a variety of roles as Head of the Department of Accounting andPublic Finance (1975–1980), the Dean of the Faculty of Economics (1979–1983),a member of the University Council (1983–1986), ANU University Treasurer(1984–1994) and Pro Vice Chancellor (Finance and Development, 1992–1996).He also served the University and the wider community on many advisorycommittees and boards and was formative in the establishment and operation ofthe Cambridge Australia Trust (Cambridgeaustralia.org.au). The notion that hecould assist other Australians to study at Cambridge was a source of particulardelight for Allan and he saw this as one of his great legacies. Without doubt thefinancial investments of the trust were some of the best managed in the countryunder Allan’s watch.

Allan was a long-term member of St Andrews Presbyterian Church inCanberra where he applied his economic and accounting skills to the recordkeeping and to the Church financial investments. He was highly active,passionate about the environment and loved his classic Jaguar car. However,his greatest love was his daughters Belinda and Kim and his grandchildren,Abby, Ryan, Lara and Haley.

Though he formally retired in 1998, he continued to contribute as an activeteacher and researcher in the School of Accounting and Business InformationSystems. Allan was directly engaged with the policy debates on public sectoraccounting practices and regularly advising governments on these matters. Allanwas always quick to draw on this background in both accounting and economicsto argue that accounting practices should serve the public interest and theneeds of macro-economic management. Allan’s academic output was prolificand was maintained throughout a challenging and diverse career. In additionhis influence on the thinking of successive generations of public administrators,policy makers, academics and accountants, while less directly visible, has alsobeen equally substantial.

Kerry Jacobs

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