George Oliver May (May 22, 1875 – May 25, 1961) was a British American accountant. He led a joint study by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed ...

that was impetus for the stock exchange requiring its listed firms to undergo independent annual audits. The study also is credited for causing the new Securities and Exchange Commission to allow the accounting profession to define accounting principles, rather than taking on that responsibility itself. He rose to senior partnership in Price Waterhouse & Co. and wrote more than 100 articles in professional journals. In 1941, he was elected as a

Fellow of the American Statistical Association Like many other academic professional societies, the American Statistical Association (ASA) uses the title of Fellow of the American Statistical Association as its highest honorary grade of membership. The number of new fellows per year is limited ...

.View/Search Fellows of the ASA
, accessed 2016-07-23. In 1944, he received the AICPA's Gold Medal Award. In 1950, he was named with two others to the

Accounting Hall of Fame The Accounting Hall of Fame is an award "recognizing accountants who are making or have made a significant contribution to the advancement of accounting" since the beginning of the 20th century. Inductees are from both accounting academia and pract ...

, in its first year. Lynn Turner, chief accountant of the SEC credits George O. May with contributing to the development of stronger authorities on accounting, noting in 1952 that May commented "'accounting income was on its way to becoming a political, not an economic concept'

References

Sources

Biography at OSU's Accounting Hall of FameStabler, Henry Francis. "May, George Oliver (1875-1961)." In ''History of Accounting: An International Encyclopedia
edited by

Michael Chatfield Michael Chatfield (1930s-2004) was an American economist, accounting historian, and Emeritus Professor of Accounting at the Southern Oregon University, known for his work on the history of accounting and accounting thought, and particularly for hi ...

and

Richard Vangermeersch Richard G.J. Vangermeersch (born 1940) is an American economist, and Emeritus Professor of Accounting at the University of Rhode Island, particularly known for his ''History of Accounting: An International Encyclopedia,'' edited with Michael Chat ...

. New York: Garland Publishing, 1996. pp. 407–409. {{DEFAULTSORT:May, George O. 1875 births 1961 deaths American accountants American business theorists People educated at Blundell's School Harvard University staff British emigrants to the United States PricewaterhouseCoopers Fellows of the American Statistical Association