Fred Richardson Retires
Frederick M. (Fred) Richardson has been with the Department since the Spring of 1980. His undergraduate degree is from the University of Missouri-Columbia, which he attended on a Navy ROTC scholarship. Because that was a time of strong interest in engineering and the natural sciences, he majored in Physics. Upon graduation, he entered the U.S. Navy as an Ensign, served on active duty for eight years, and left as a Lieutenant for a job as a sales engineer selling pumps and condensers for Ingersoll-Rand Company. During this period he entered the Naval Reserve, in which he served for an additional 19-plus years in various billets. He retired from the Naval Reserve in 1989 at the rank of Captain, having commanded three different units in Raleigh, NC, and Greenville, SC.
After a brief stint with Ingersoll-Rand Co., he obtained an MBA (with a concentration in Accounting) at East Carolina University. Upon graduation, he attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and received a Ph.D. in Business Administration with a concentration in Accounting. Following that, he came to Blacksburg to join the Department of Accounting.
Fred has taught a myriad of courses in the curriculum since arriving at Virginia Tech, including Fundamentals and Principles of Accounting, Intermediate Financial Accounting, Managerial and Cost Accounting, Advanced Financial Accounting (grad and undergrad), Accounting Policy, Accounting Theory (grad), Personal Computers in Business, Evolution of Accounting Thought, Financial Statement Analysis (MBA), and Concepts of Accounting Research (Ph.D. seminar). In addition, he has conducted research primarily in the area of corporate distress and failure, including prediction of failure and emergence from distress, the impact of economic upturns and downturns on the prediction of failure, and the use of heuristics and rank transformations to predict failure. In addition, he has investigated the time series properties of accounting numbers and ratios, as well as the role of economic sector in the propensity for income smoothing by companies. He has served the Department on the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, the Master’s Committee, the Ph.D. Committee, the Research Committee, the Personnel Committee, the Strategic Planning Committee, and others.
Fred’s service had its high point during the years he served Beta Alpha Psi. He served the Department as Faculty Advisor to the Gamma Lambda Chapter for four years, during which the Chapter earned Superior status each year. This was followed by two years as Regional Director, three years as National Director of Administration, and a year as National President.
A second important service activity involved his chairing of the Department’s Long-Range Curriculum Planning Committee. The committee met over a two-year span (2004-05) during which it accomplished a zero-based revision of the accounting curriculum that the department began to implement in 2006. The committee recommended a course introducing the tax impact of management’s decisions at the junior level, as well as a course that covered the basics of corporate governance, ethics, and auditing. These courses were followed in the Senior year by more thorough courses in Principles of Income Tax and Financial Statement Auditing. Besides this basic accounting track, the undergraduate curriculum also includes a track in information systems audit for the four-year student. The Master’s curriculum was revamped, and includes options in Tax and Assurance, Financial Reporting and Assurance Services, and Information Systems Audit and Control.
Fred and his wife, Florence have decided to remain in Blacksburg during retirement. His children and their families reside in the Raleigh area of North Carolina.