Professor Colin Ferguson Obituary

Citation

Betts, J. and Wines, E.C.a.G. (2014), "Professor Colin Ferguson Obituary", Accounting Research Journal, Vol. 27 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ARJ-07-2014-001

Professor Colin Ferguson Obituary

Article Type: Obituary From: Accounting Research Journal, Volume 27, Issue 1

Professor Colin Ferguson, well-known Australian academic and an Accounting Research Journal editorial board member, passed away peacefully after a short battle with cancer on 18 March 2014, aged 64 years.

It is with a sense of great personal loss that we write these words of tribute to Colin, at various times our friend, colleague and mentor. We do so conscious that we represent the thoughts and feelings of many others in the academy, whose professional lives have been enhanced by knowing Colin.

As an opening observation, if Colin was asked to perform some role of service to the academy, he would invariably say he would be “delighted” to accept. So “delight” may be a discordant sentiment to express in this context, but it captures Colin. He would not simply be “pleased” or “honoured” to represent his academy, he would be “delighted” in a way such that we truly believed he was quite genuine. Another strategy Colin adopted would be to use the word “typically” judiciously but in an inclusionary sense to articulate the common ground between all those involved in the common enterprise.

The Journal has been published since 1987. Colin has been on the editorial advisory board since 1998, representing various expertise, but notably accounting information systems. As editor, I feel a genuine responsibility to record in a formal sense Colin’s achievements and contribution to the academy generally, and I am deeply indebted to two dear colleagues, Professor Graeme Wines and Dr Jenny Betts, for their personal insights. Together, we aspire to capture the essence of Colin’s contributions as well as the substance of them.

Born in Warrnambool in South West Victoria in 1949, Colin had an international reputation for his research in the areas of accounting information systems, auditing and forensic accounting. His research reflected a keen mind and an ability to turn his many unique insights on contemporary developments into workable and valuable research projects.

For those readers not familiar with Australia’s geography, Warrnambool is a regional city on the southern coast of mainland Australia. It is the heart of an extensive dairy farming district, so Colin experienced a childhood typical of rural Australia in the middle of the 20th century. Given its coastal location, sport and outdoor pursuits feature heavily in Warrnambool’s past and present, and Colin was exceptionally engaged during his entire life with a variety of sports and community enterprises, including Australian Rules Football, surf lifesaving and golf.

Colin was educated at the Christians Brothers College in Warrnambool, where he had been a school prefect and a member of the College’s football, athletics and swimming teams. He also spent many of his formative years as a member of the Warrnambool Surf Life Saving Club, including as a surf boat rower.

After completing his secondary schooling, Colin graduated with a Diploma of Business Studies from the then Warrnambool Institute of Advanced Education (WIAE, now part of Deakin University) in 1971. This was converted to a Bachelor of Business through Swinburne Institute of Technology in 1975.

Colin worked as an auditor after his initial graduation with Peat Marwick Mitchell (now KPMG) for two years from 1971. His passion for teaching must have been evident at that time, as in 1973 he completed a Graduate of Diploma in Education at the State College of Victoria (Hawthorn). He returned to Warrnambool to teach at secondary level, but then moved into the tertiary arena in 1975, when he was appointed as a Lecturer at WIAE. This was the beginning of an illustrious academic career.

In his time at WIAE, Colin also completed, through part-time off-campus studies, a Master of Economics at The University of New England (1980) and a Graduate Diploma of Computing at Deakin University (1985). His PhD at Deakin was completed in 1994. His PhD topic, An investigation of the effects of microcomputers on the work of professional accountants, reflected his interest in the interface between accounting, the accounting profession and business information systems.

In addition to Colin’s early years of academic life at Warrnambool, many would not be aware he was instrumental in designing the campus golf course (although many did know he was a talented golfer) and in establishing the WIAE (now Deakin) Sharks football team. Both of these remain today and stand as a memorial to his efforts and achievements.

Colin left Warrnambool in 1994 to take up a position at The University of Queensland, becoming Professor of Accounting Information Systems in 2001. Colin’s move to Queensland was not surprising, as he had spent two periods of sabbatical there, in the second half of 1988 and the first half of 1993, and had strong links with a number of staff there, especially Professor Ian Zimmer who Colin had worked with when Ian was at WIAE for a few years in the late 1970s.

Colin moved back to Victoria to take up a position as Professor of Business Information Systems at The University of Melbourne in 2003, with Professor Stewart Leech being instrumental in his recruitment. As expected, Colin continued to build his research reputation and work closely with many other academics and continued to interact closely with the “big end of town”. While at Melbourne, a major initiative in which he was instrumental was creation of the Australian Accounting Hall of Fame.

Recognising his significant contribution and continued close association with Deakin University and many of its staff, Colin was appointed as an honorary professor in 2003, a position he held up until his passing.

Colin was a prolific and influential researcher in his work as an academic, focussing on research projects that enabled him to engage directly with industry and the profession. He published the results of his research in many of the leading international accounting, business, economics and information systems journals. Colin had a particular flair in being able to bring together unique research ideas and networks of researchers to successfully raise research funds. In particular, considerable success was achieved in gaining Australian Research Council (ARC) grants, especially Linkage Project grants.

Colin was influential in the career development of many other academics. He gave his time freely and provided much advice to other academics, PhD students and many others. In this respect, Colin had an incredibly positive effect on the careers of many, and his inclusive nature can be seen in many CVs. It is impossible to name the many academics who were influenced by, and benefited from, Colin’s input and assistance, but one statistic gives some insight into this. If one looked through Colin’s CV and noted the names of others with whom he had worked and that had resulted in research grants, publications and conference presentations, 72 names would be produced. But that, of course, would understate his total contribution, as he voluntarily assisted so many others without requiring any formal recognition.

Colin was active in the Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand (AFAANZ), and was President for 2004-2005 and a director of the Board from 1999 to 2005. He also served as a member, and chair on occasions, of various AFAANZ’s annual conference technical committees and was a member of the PhD Scholarship Committee. He sat on review and accreditation panels at a number of universities. He was an editorial board member of several academic journals (including, of course, Accounting Research Journal) and an ad hoc reviewer for many other journals.

In addition to his input, as outlined above, into academia, generally, Colin also had a long history of involvement with the accounting profession and the professional bodies. He was a fellow of both Certified Public Accountant (CPA) Australia and The Institute of Chartered Accountants in Australia (ICAA) and had been a member of a number of their boards and committees. To name but a few these included, at various times, member of CPA Australia’s Education Advisory Committee and councillor and chairman of the Western District (Victorian) branch. He had also been, again to name a few, a member of the ICAA’s Academic Board, Thought Leadership Group, CA Innovation Board, Careers and Marketing Committee and Research Grants Committee.

While it would be thought, from the above summary, that Colin would have little time for anything outside academia, he had an ability to achieve a healthy work–life balance. His activities around his homes over the years were testament to the inheritance of his father’s construction and veggie gardening skills. His outside accomplishments always reflected his intellectual skills and the continual application of his inquiring mind to any task he confronted.

Those who knew Colin could not have escaped observing his lifelong support, including as a member, of the Melbourne Football Club. This membership obviously involved many years of frustration, but Colin’s loyalty was there to the end. Again, those who knew him understood that his loyalty did not extend only to his football club.

On Friday, 4 April 2014, Deakin University and The University of Melbourne generously hosted a commemoration service to honour Colin. The commemoration was held at the Warrnambool campus of Deakin University, and given its regional location, there were over 200 people who attended that day. Nine high-profile people from various walks of life addressed various aspects of Colin’s life, as we have outlined above. In particular, Professor Anne Lillis from the University of Melbourne expressed sentiments that were common to all the speakers in talking of Colin’s essential humanity and of his nature as a “people person”, as he was an extremely social colleague. He enquired as to others’ well-being, he always had time for a chat as he moved through the workplace, he took an interest in his colleagues’ personal and professional lives and he was quite generous in sharing his life experiences. He gave us the impression of a genuine “all rounder” – academic, scholar, researcher, supervisor, colleague, friend, husband, father, grandfather and brother.

Colin is survived by his wife Yvonne and children Sam, Kate, Joseph and Patrick. He lived just long enough for the arrival of his first grandchild, Sam’s daughter Genevieve. Colin was devoted to his family and exceedingly proud of the achievements of his children.

It is extremely sad that Colin did not get the chance to retire to his beloved Warrnambool as he was starting to plan. That would have only been semi-retirement, though, as he was still committed to maintaining active contact with his many academic friends, the various universities and institutions with which he was associated and his ongoing (and no doubt new) research projects. There is no way Colin would have been able to retire to a sedentary lifestyle after his busy academic career. And among other things, he would have loved to work on returning his golf handicap to single figures and watch the Sharks play in his hometown.

Colin’s contribution as a colleague, mentor and friend to so many is acknowledged here and will be long remembered. He was certainly a unique academic, and he will be missed profoundly by the many who knew him and worked closely with him.

Jenny Betts, School of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Deakin University, Australia

Ellie Chapple, Accounting Research Journal, Australia

Graeme Wines, School of Accounting, Economics and Finance, Deakin University, Australia