The school’s second dean, Jacob Hugh Jackson (1931–1956), held the longest tenure of any dean to date, seeing the school through the lean days of World War II and into the ’50s.
In 1926, Dean Jackson joined Stanford’s new Graduate School of Business as a professor of accounting. In 1931 he became dean, a post which he held for 25 years. From 1937 to 1940, he also served as acting comptroller.
Jackson’s sympathetic understanding and helpfulness had a lasting influence upon countless numbers of students. An extraordinarily successful teacher, he insisted on the highest standards of teaching performance from his faculty.
He authored or coauthored several books, including:
- Audit Working Papers, 1923
- Bookkeeping and Business Knowledge, 1926
- Auditing Problems, 1929
- Accounting Principles, 1942
- The Comptroller, His Functions and Organization, 1948
Other Notable Positions
- 1932 — lectured for the William A. Vawter Foundation on Business Ethics at Northwestern University
- 1946 — awarded the Diamond Key of the National Association of Teaching Certified Public Accountants “for distinguished contributions to the literature of accounting and auditing”
- 1947 — gave the Dickinson Lectures on Accounting at Harvard University Community Involvement
Jackson was highly involved in the community, serving as a member of the board for the Palo Alto Mutual Savings and Loan Association and advisory board for the Anglo California National Bank. He was also president of the:
- Stanford Bookstore
- Stanford chapter of the American Association of University Professors
- Palo Alto School Board
- American Accounting Association
- National Association of Cost Accountants
- American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business
- Palo Alto Kiwanis Club
The Kiwanis activity was close to his heart and after serving in various lesser posts, he became international president of Kiwanis in 1949-50. He also served as a:
- National director of the American Management Association
- Trustee of the Foundation for Economic Education
- Trustee of the Teachers’ Insurance and Annuity Association
After Retirement
After Jackson retired in 1956, Dean Jackson remained active in academic and community affairs. In 1961 he completed a research project for the American Management Association on the effectiveness of employee training programs in large American corporations. At the time of his death he was a professor of business administration at the University of Santa Clara.
He died January 21, 1962, the day after his 71st birthday.
Jackson was born on a farm in Warren County, Iowa, on January 20, 1891. He received a bachelor of arts degree from Simpson College in 1912, a master of business administration with distinction from Harvard University in 1920 and two honorary degrees from Simpson College, doctor of law in 1930 and doctor of business administration in 1955.
He became a certified public accountant in Wisconsin in 1919 and later was certified for both Massachusetts and California. His first college teaching post was at the University of Oregon, 1916-17. From 1918-19 he served as assistant professor of accounting at the University of Minnesota.
On completion of his master’s degree in business he was made assistant professor of accounting at the Harvard Graduate School of Business in 1923 and was advanced to full professor there at the age of 32. During his time at Harvard and until 1930 at Stanford, he was associated with the nationally known public accounting firm of Price Waterhouse & Co. In 1923 he served as a lecturer in auditing at New York University and held the same post at the University of Chicago in the summer of 1923.