School faculty and board members gather on June 12, 2019, to celebrate retirements.
The School of Accountancy & MIS bade farewell to six faculty members who retired from DePaul University during the 2018-2019 academic year after nearly 250 years of collective service. Together, these faculty members have transformed the lives of thousands of DePaul students and have left a lasting impact on the school, the college and the university. Their accomplishments were celebrated at a reception last June.
John Ahern served as the school’s director from 1986 to 1995 and again from 2015 to 2017. He taught a full breadth of courses including auditing, financial accounting and managerial accounting, as well as courses in the internship program. He served on major committees for the school, college and university throughout his career. Most recently, Ahern was director of the Driehaus Center for International Business. As a Fulbright Scholar, Ahern taught in many countries, including Bahrain, Finland and Russia. He also published a number of professional journal articles.
Elizabeth Murphy received both the Economos Distinguished Teaching Award and the Illinois CPA Society Outstanding Educator Award during her career at DePaul. She published articles on accounting and ethics topics. Murphy taught in the CPA Review program for more than 20 years and served on the Illinois CPA Society’s Board of Directors and the Diversity Initiatives Task Force. Murphy served as the faculty adviser for the Midwest Association of Hispanic Accountants (MAHA) and Graduate Students for Accounting (GSA).
Mark Frigo was director and co-founder of the Center for Strategy, Execution and Valuation in the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business. His teaching career earned him the Economos Distinguished Teaching Award three times and the Illinois CPA Society Outstanding Educator of the Year Award. He developed the popular strategy, execution and valuation MBA concentration and delivered value-driven lessons for students, professionals and industry executives. He has spoken at numerous professional conferences and has delivered keynote addresses on business strategy. Frigo was the Ezerski Endowed Chair, and he authored seven books and more than 125 journal articles.
Mark McCarthy taught a wide range of subjects, including financial accounting, managerial accounting and income taxation. He developed and taught DePaul’s first course in financial literacy. McCarthy was consistently recognized as an excellent teacher, contributing significantly to the college’s international program and corporate partnership MBA programs. He taught in DePaul’s CPA Review program for 30 years and served as its director from 1987 through 2010.
Belverd Needles was founding director of the school and helped organize Ledger & Quill into one of the largest accounting school donor support organizations. He served on numerous strategic committees for the school, college and university over his career and was the EY Distinguished Professor of Accountancy. He was president of the Illinois CPA Society and Foundation and the International Association for Accounting Education and Research. Needles is an internationally recognized teacher and prolific scholar of articles and books, including textbooks used in universities all over the world. He was named by Accounting Today to its list of the 100 Most Influential Accountants and has received numerous awards, including the Illinois CPA Society Outstanding Educator of the Year Award and the American Accounting Association Outstanding Educator Award.
David Roberts taught courses in taxation, including a seminar on tax issues relevant to society and business today. He frequently shared his tax expertise in media interviews and opinion pieces he authored for newspapers. He published numerous articles in professional tax journals. Roberts helped countless students pass the CPA exam through his tax courses and the CPA Review program. He served as chair of the tax curriculum committee and as a member of the MS in taxation curriculum committee.