JOHN ARCHIBALD WHITE
1901-1980
Page last updated
Oct. 19, 2006
John Archibald White was born on July 17, 1901 in Tocopola, Mississippi to John Van Dyke White and Alberta Smith White. The family moved to De Leon probably in 1906. He graduated from De Leon High School in 1919 and worked that summer as a clerk for MKT Railroad.
In September, he enrolled at The University of Texas and after successfully completing his first year, he returned to De Leon and again worked for the railroad and later for De Leon Auto Sales as a bookkeeper and attendant.
He returned to the The University in the fall of 1921 for a second year of collegiate study. From 1922 to 1928 he taught, coached basketball and served as the principal of Sanderson High School in west Texas.
He married Gazelle Williams on August 10, 1925.
In 1928 he retuned to The University of Texas and earned a B.B.A. with Highest Honors in 1929. He immediately entered graduate school and earned his M.B.A. in 1930. He continued graduate study and received his Ph.D. in 1937.
From 1938 until his retirement in 1968, John Arch White held a long and distinguished series of academic appointments. Beginning as an instructor and advancing through the ranks of assistant and associated professor, he was promoted to full professor and member of the Graduate Faculty in 1945. He served as the first Chairman of the Accounting Department from 1946 through 1954 and as Associate Dean of the College of Business Administration from 1954 to 1957. He was made Acting Dean of the College in 1957 and served as Dean of the College of Business Administration from 1958 to 1966. From 1963 to 1966 Dr. White also served as Dean of the Graduate School of Business. He was appointed Professor Emeritus in 1967.
During his tenure as Dean, John Arch White made many lasting contributions to collegiate business education. He was deeply involved in planning for the first College of Business Administration building on the UT campus. It was completed and occupied in 1961. He skillfully led a reorganization in graduate business education which in 1963 culminated in the creation of a separate Graduate School of Business, and greatly improved the MBA and MPA curricula. He was also recognized and honored at the time of his retirement, by having the first endowed professorship in the College of Business named in his honor.
Dean White’s only long-term absence from the UT campus after 1928 occurred during 1943-1944 when he served as District Price Executive with the Office of Price Administration in Houston. For several years Dr. White also served as a consultant to Covington and Burling, a Washington, D.C. law firm.
White was a prolific author of accounting textbooks. His first text, Elementary Accounting, co-authored with Professors Newlove and Haynes, was published in 1938 by Heath and Company. This text was revised and published in three subsequent editions. Dr. White was also a co-author of three additional accounting texts, namely, Intermediate Accounting (Heath); Fundamental Accounting Principles (Irwin); and Intermediate Accounting (Irwin). Each of these texts has been published in numerous subsequent editions and the last two mentioned texts were among the most popular accounting textbooks in the world at the time of his death.
Although teaching, writing and administrative duties kept John Arch White very busy, he always found time to help others. Among the many services that he rendered to the accounting profession, The University and the community, were one year as President of the American Accounting Association (1956-1957); several years as faculty vice president of Theta Psi and another year (1951-1952) as national President of Beta Alpha Psi, the honorary accounting fraternity; three years a a member of the Executive Committee of the American Assembly Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) a term as Associate Editor of the Southwest Social Science Quarterly; a long-term member of the U.T. Graduate Council; and service as a Deacon in the University Baptist Church of Austin. White’s outstanding record of academic accomplishment and professional service was first recognized nationally with the inclusion of his biography in Who’s Who in America in 1954.
In May 31, 1968, John Arch White was forced by poor health to retire after 38 years of service to the University of Texas. He had suffered a stroke earlier in the semester while still teaching intermediate accounting and was unable to finish the semester.
On his retirement, literally hundreds of former students and academic colleagues paused to reflect upon this truly amazing man. Although his professional accomplishments were legion, those who knew him well loved him not for what he had done but for the compassion concern that he had always demonstrated in his own life. No student’s problem was ever too small or too unimportant of John Arch White. No faculty member ever hesitated to seek his wise counsel on any problem, personal or professional. John Arch was clearly a concerned human and a devoted teacher whose contributions will live for many years through those he touched.
John Arch White died on May 9, 1980. His wife Gazelle preceded him in death on July 2, 1970. He was survived by two brothers Goen White then of San Antonio and William S. White of Frankfurt, Kentucky and one sister Mrs. Doris Roe of Beaumont.
Sources: 1920 De Leonian, the University of Texas Report of the Memorial Resolution Committee for John Arch White.
Additional information is available at:
www.mccombs.utexas.edu/news/magazine/02f/course.asp or www.mccombs.utexas.edu/news/magazine/05s/accounting.asp
An extensively used third edition of Fundamental Accounting by William W. Pyle of Arizona State University and John Arch White of The University of Texas. The first edition was published in 1955, a second in 1959 and this particular edition in 1963. Purchased as a used textbook, it had at least four student owners, the last of which was from De Leon.
A student raised in De Leon would discover exercises in the book that certainly sounded like one of the authors might have ties to the town. For instance businesses were mentioned with De Leon names like Sloan, Haskin, Hardt and “The Man’s Shop.” Those chapters written by Pyle tended to use names related to the desert or the sun.
Intermediate Accounting was authored by Glenn A. Welsch, Charles T. Zlatkovich and John Arch White, all of The University of Texas. The first edition was printed in 1963, the second in 1968 and this third edition in January 1972.