Robert Arthur Young (17 December 1863 – 3 April 1948) was a

Scottish American Scottish Americans or Scots Americans (Scottish Gaelic: ''Ameireaganaich Albannach''; sco, Scots-American) are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in Scotland. Scottish Americans are closely related to Scotch-Irish Americans, d ...

. He was one of the founders of

Ernst & Young Ernst & Young Global Limited, trade name EY, is a multinational professional services partnership headquartered in London, England. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and Pricewat ...

, the international accounting firm.

Early life

Young was born on 17 December 1863 in Scotland. He was the son of a

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

merchant and shipowner. His nephew,

Sir Arthur Young Colonel Sir Arthur Edwin Young (15 February 1907 – 20 January 1979) was a British police officer. He was Commissioner of Police of the City of London from 1950 to 1971 and was also the first head of the Royal Ulster Constabulary to be styled ...

, was a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

and former Chamberlain of the King's Household. He was educated at the

University of Glasgow , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

where he studied law, was the captain of the University rugby team and played for Glasgow in an inter-city rugby match. He graduated MA in 1883 and

LLB Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

in 1887.

Career

He apprenticed with Glasgow solicitors A. J. & A. Graham before moving to the United States in 1890. In 1894, he began the practice of public accounting in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

with C. W. Stuart under the firm name Stuart & Young. In 1903, he helped secure the passage of the first C.P.A. law in Illinois and later served as president of the Illinois Society of Certified Public Accountants. In 1906, he bought out Stuart's interest in the firm and together with his brother Stanley Young, founded the accountancy firm Arthur Young & Co. in Chicago. In 1924 Young innovated by forging an international network with Broads Paterson & Co in the UK. He retired shortly after that and died in 1948.

Personal life

In 1917, he moved from Chicago to New York City, where he resided at 815

Park Avenue Park Avenue is a wide New York City boulevard which carries north and southbound traffic in the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. For most of the road's length in Manhattan, it runs parallel to Madison Avenue to the west and Lexington Av ...

on Manhattan's

Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 96th Street to the north, the East River to the east, 59th Street to the south, and Central Park/Fifth Avenue to the wes ...

. In 1927, he purchased " Crossways," a pre-1860

Late Victorian Victorian architecture is a series of architectural revival styles in the mid-to-late 19th century. ''Victorian'' refers to the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901), called the Victorian era, during which period the styles known as Victorian we ...

-style residence on South Boundary Street in

Aiken, South Carolina Aiken is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Aiken County, in western South Carolina. It is one of the two largest cities of the Central Savannah River Area. Founded in 1835, Aiken was named after William Aiken, the president of the S ...

from Dr. H. J. Ray for $40,000. The home was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in 1997. Young, who never married, was "remembered in a social setting for his loose fitting tweed clothes from Whitaker & Company in London, pipe smoking and martinis, elaborate meals at Aiken with his cook Margaret Beckford, and his many dogs." He died at his residence in Aiken on 3 April 1948. He was buried at Bethany Cemetery in Aiken. His memoirs, entitled ''Arthur Young and the Business he Founded'', were privately printed in 1948 by J. C. Burton and published by

Merrymount Press Merrymount Press was a printing press in Boston, Massachusetts, founded by Daniel Berkeley Updike in 1893. He was committed to creating books of superior quality and believed that books could be simply designed, yet beautiful. Upon his death in 1 ...

in Boston.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Young, Arthur 1863 births 1948 deaths Alumni of the University of Glasgow Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Scottish accountants Glasgow District (rugby union) players People from the Upper East Side