John Burton, a Columbia Dean, Dies at 77
John C. Burton, a former dean of Columbia Business School and an accountant whose fervent advocacy of transparency in financial reporting and for a greater role for accountants in public life led him to prominent positions in the federal and New York City governments, died in Manhattan on Sunday. He was 77. The cause was kidney failure, said his daughter, Eve.
Mr. Burton, who earned an M.B.A. and a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia, was on the faculty from 1962 until 2002 and was dean of the business school from 1982 to 1988.
He was away from Columbia, however, from 1972 until 1977, when he served first as the chief accountant of the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington and then as New York City’s deputy mayor for finance at a time when, after years of mismanagement, the city came perilously close to bankruptcy.
At the S.E.C., Mr. Burton stiffened the requirements for financial reporting by companies and lobbied accounting firms to take greater responsibility for the accuracy and clarity of the financial records under their review.
He argued that the accountant’s task should not be confined to auditing corporate books, but should include forecasts, judgments on the corporation’s financial controls and evaluations of management. And he argued that accounting firms were too secretive about their own finances....
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Mr. Burton, who earned an M.B.A. and a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia, was on the faculty from 1962 until 2002 and was dean of the business school from 1982 to 1988.
He was away from Columbia, however, from 1972 until 1977, when he served first as the chief accountant of the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington and then as New York City’s deputy mayor for finance at a time when, after years of mismanagement, the city came perilously close to bankruptcy.
At the S.E.C., Mr. Burton stiffened the requirements for financial reporting by companies and lobbied accounting firms to take greater responsibility for the accuracy and clarity of the financial records under their review.
He argued that the accountant’s task should not be confined to auditing corporate books, but should include forecasts, judgments on the corporation’s financial controls and evaluations of management. And he argued that accounting firms were too secretive about their own finances....