Arthur Anderson

Arthur Andersen

Arthur Andersen lived a disciplined life with a lot of hardship with devoted growth. From the death of his parents at the age of 16 to the development of his

accounting practice in 1912 he has educated and helped some of the most profound corporations out there today. His own death brought a slow and dragged out

death to his accounting practice. But, is there hope? Can trust be regained from the hopeless?

Arthur Andersen and his legacy

Arthur Andersen was born in 1885, the stalwart son of Norwegian immigrants. Arthur Andersen was left on his own at the age of 16 after the deaths of his parents. He worked during the day as a mail boy and attended school at night

He was hired as the assistant to the controller of Allis-Chalmers in Chicago where he became intrigued with the work of independent public accountants. He received a degree as a certified public accountant at the University of Illinois in 1908; at age 23 he was the youngest CPA in Illinois. In 1917 he graduated from Northwestern University with a bachelor's degree in business.

He worked for an accounting firm in Chicago and as a controller for the Schlitz Brewing Co. in Milwaukee. In 1913, at the age of 28, he entered into business for himself as Arthur Andersen & Co. From 1912-22, he was a professor of accounting at Northwestern University. He was the first to design courses that forced accounting students to deal with practical operating problems of business organizations.

Andersen had an unwavering faith in education as the basis upon which the new profession of accounting should be developed. In 1927, he was elected to the Board of Trustees of Northwestern University and served as its president from 1930 to 1932. He even held an honorary degree from St. Olaf College.

Arthur Andersen, the man, died in 1947 at the age of 61. Arthur Andersen, the company, continued. It flourished and grew remaining the leading accountancy firm through the decades. But something went...