An NIU accountancy professor who earned the university’s highest award for teaching and gained national recognition as the author of eight widely-used books on accounting received another honor in 1986 when he became the holder of NIU’s first named professorship.

Donald E. Kieso became the first Peat Marwick Professor of Accounting on Oct. 1, 1986, in no small part due to the efforts of ten NIU alumni at Peat Marwick who nominated him for the honor.

“This new professorship is being established because the firm’s partners want to recognize that NIU’s accountancy program is one of the premier high quality programs in the nation,” said PM partner Mural R. Josephson.

Josephson, himself an NIU alumnus, explained that the gift would allow his firm to have a constant and visible presence on the NIU campus, aiding in the recruitment of accounting graduates. Peat Marwick, the nation’s second-largest accounting firm, (now known as KPMG), considered NIU among their top five “source schools” for new employees.

The Peat Marwick professorship came on the heels of a national survey of accounting department chairs that placed NIU’s program firmly in the top ten of the “most admired” in the nation.

To underscore the influence Don Kieso had on their lives, the ten NIU alums who began the renewable professorship helped fund it themselves (with assistance from KPMG and the KPMG Foundation). 

Soon after Peat Marwick established the first named professorship, NIU Accountancy received six other renewable professorships from public accounting firms and corporations. Within less than five years, the creation of named professorships spread throughout the university.

And since Don Kieso, who retired in 1992, two other prominent NIU professors have held the KPMG professorship: John Engstrom and Pam Smith.

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