Robert N. Anthony, L.H.D.

1916 - 2006  (90 years)

• Name	Robert N. Anthony
  Birth	c 1916
  	He was 90 years old when he passed away.
  History	Robert graduated in 1938 from Colby College with an A.B. He graduated in 1940 from the Harvard Business School with a M.B.A. He was employed by the Harvard Business School between 1940 and 1965. From 1941 to 1946, he served in the Naval Reserve attaining the rank of Lieutenant Commander. Robert graduated in 1952 from Harvard with a Doctor of Commercial Science degree. Robert was appointed as the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) under President Lyndon Johnson on 01 September 1965. His obituary reads: "Robert N. Anthony '38, L.H.D. '63, a life trustee at Colby who was described by the Harvard Business School (HBS) as "a giant in field of management accounting," died December 1 in Hanover, N.H., at age 90. Anthony joined the HBS faculty in 1940 and was the Ross Graham Walker Professor of Management Controls, Emeritus, at the time of his death. He was world renowned as a scholar, author, and innovator in the field of management accounting and control. He also distinguished himself in public service as assistant secretary of defense (1965-68) and as an advisor to the Comptroller General and other government agencies. He was named to Colby's Board of Trustees in 1959 and had a long history of service and generosity to the College. He was chair of the board from 1978 to 1983 and was one of only four life trustees at the time of his death. He received the Colby Brick Award, the Marriner Distinguished Service Award, and the Distinguished Alumnus Award. He was a principal donor to the Anthony-Mitchell-Schupf Residence Hall. At Colby he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He earned a master's degree in 1940 and a doctorate in 1952, both from Harvard, serving in the Pacific with the U.S. Navy during World War II. "He had a monumental impact, not only on his students through his teaching and textbooks, but also on the business, nonprofit, and government worlds," said Professor Regina E. Herzlinger, a former student who became Anthony's colleague on the HBS faculty. At the request of the Federal Accounting Standards Board (FASB) he studied nonprofit organizations' accounting procedures and recommended that they produce the same sorts of financial reports as profit-making organizations. FASB standard number 34, on capitalizing the cost of interest, is directly traceable to his work. During the Vietnam War Anthony served as assistant secretary of defense under his former Harvard colleague Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara. He was responsible for building and presenting to Congress an $80-billion budget and for managing a monumental effort to overhaul the department's accounting and control system. "He changed the way the Defense Department operated," a colleague said. He also served locally. A past president of the American Accounting Association and a member of the Accounting Hall of Fame (at Ohio State), he took pride that he was elected town auditor of Waterville Valley, N.H., where he spent much of his retirement. In 1986 he said, "I had opposition the first time, but I haven't had any since. I got 24 votes last year; that's all there were."  [1, 2]
  Death	1 Dec 2006	Hanover, Grafton County, New Hampshire   [2]
  Person ID	I2096	| Clan of Jonathan, Tribe of Calvin
  Last Modified	24 Jun 2014

  
  

  Father	Charles H. Anthony   d. 1981
  Mother	Grace Newton
  Family ID	F1204	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	Gretchen Lynch
  Children	1. Robert N. Anthony, Jr., M.D.   2. Victoria Anthony
  Family ID	F1242	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	24 Jun 2014

  
  

  Family 2	Katherine Yeager
  Family ID	F840	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	24 Jun 2014

  
  

• Event Map		Death - 1 Dec 2006 - Hanover, Grafton County, New Hampshire  = Link to Google Earth
  Pin Legend	: Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  
  

• Photos

  Robert N. Anthony L.H.D

  
  

• Sources

  [S388] Delvee Historian. Delvee Family Records 1887 - 1988, (Warwick, Massachusetts: manuscript, 1988). [S817] Obituary of Robert Anthony, (Colby College Magazine, 16 Feberary 2007).