An influential accounting educator in a career that spanned half a century, Edwards was an accomplished textbook author, effective fundraiser, decisive administrator, prodigious networker and loyal friend and mentor to hundreds of UGA alumni, accounting colleagues and former students.
A loving husband and father, Edwards is survived by son Jim and Shelley Edwards of Athens; four granddaughters, Chelsea Palmer (Will), Hannah Hamilton (Madison), Kate Cape (Matt) and Ashley Weinberg (Sandler); and great-grandchildren Ben Palmer, Merritt Cape, Hawkins Cape and Wyatt Hamilton. He was preceded in death by his wife of 66 years, Clara Maestri Edwards, brothers Thomas T. Edwards and Mike J. Edwards and sister Irene Edwards Landry.
The son of Thomas Terrell Edwards and Reitha Mae Cranford Edwards, he was the youngest of four children. Born in Ellisville, Mississippi, and raised in Louisiana, he graduated from a class of 10 students at Atlanta High School in Atlanta, Louisiana, in 1944. Near the end of World War II, he served with the U.S. Naval Marines in China, Korea, Japan and Okinawa Island. Following his military service, he earned a bachelor’s degree from Louisiana State University in 1949, an M.B.A. from the University of Denver in 1950 and his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 1953. He was a certified public accountant in Texas and Georgia.
He met Clara Maestri in 1943 while both were working summer jobs at Peoples Laundry, managed by Clara’s uncle, Richard Maestri. After their third date, they became engaged, but marriage would have to wait for the end of the war after he enlisted in the Navy. They were married on August 16, 1947, at the home of Clara’s parents, located on a street called Lovers Lane.
Edwards joined the accounting faculty at Michigan State University in 1953 as an assistant professor. He was promoted to associate professor in 1955 and full professor in 1957. The following year he was named head of the department, a position he held for 13 years. In 1972, after a year at the University of Minnesota, he joined the accounting faculty at the University of Georgia, and in 1976 he was named the J.M. Tull Professor of Accounting — also the first endowed professorship at the College of Business Administration. He was the central figure who secured the endowment from the J.M. Tull Foundation to name the School of Accounting in the late 1970s.
An emeritus trustee of the UGA Foundation for 40 years and an early member of the Presidents Club, Edwards worked diligently to raise funds for academic programs and scholarships. He served on the UGA Alumni Association Board of Directors, the UGA Athletic Board and numerous university committees. He concluded his administrative leadership to UGA by serving for two years as interim dean of the Terry College of Business, during the restoration of Brooks Hall following fire damage in 1995 and construction of Sanford Hall. Edwards retired from UGA in 1998. He was awarded emeritus status in 1999 and kept an office in Brooks Hall until 2017.
Edwards was the 69th member — and one of a small number of academicians — to be elected to the Accounting Hall of Fame in 2001. In his induction, he was honored for forging important links between the academic and professional fields of accounting. He served for a decade on the Public Review Board of Arthur Andersen, reviewing audit quality in 40 countries, and on the CPA Board of Examiners. He was a founding trustee of the Financial Accounting Foundation, the parent organization of the Financial Accounting Standards Board.
As president of the American Accounting Association in 1970-71, Edwards fostered formation of the AAA’s Commission to Establish Accounting Principles, an effort that foreshadowed the formation of the Financial Accounting Standards Board. He also pushed for the establishment of the AAA Doctoral Consortium and was an early advocate of publication outlets for research on accounting education. He attended a remarkable 60 consecutive annual meetings of the AAA.
He served on the board of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and its formative Committee on the Standards of Professional Conduct, as well as chairman of the Georgia State Board of Accountancy and was a national vice president of the Institute of Management Accounting. He also served as an officer and trustee of the Academy of Accounting Historians.
Edwards authored or co-authored more than a dozen textbooks and about 100 research articles on accounting, financial management and accounting history. His first book, History of Public Accounting in the United States, was an important text on the development of the accounting profession. He lectured throughout the United States and abroad — including invited lectures and seminars in Brazil, France, England, Vietnam, Cuba and Ukraine — served as a visiting scholar at Oxford University’s Nuffield College.
Accounting Today named Edwards one of the “100 Most Influential People in Accounting.” He was the first accounting professor to receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Paris, and he was the first recipient of the Outstanding Accountant Award from the National Council of Beta Alpha Psi. He was given the Gold Medal Award by the AICPA, and the Academy of Accounting Historians selected him to receive the Hourglass Award for his contributions to accounting history.
From UGA, he received the Alumni Association’s Faculty Service Award in 1989, the Abraham Baldwin Award in 1994 and the Blue Key Award from the Blue Key Honor Society in 2003. In 1998, he was invited to the Georgia House of Representatives and the Georgia Senate to hear resolutions recognizing his contributions to the field of accounting and the state. And in 1983, he was inducted into the Louisiana State University Alumni Hall of Distinction.
Edwards served on the corporate and nonprofit boards of J.M. Tull Industries, Home Banc, Georgia National Bank, Greenfield Capital, Cornerstone Bank, Georgia Cities in Schools and East Lake Foundation.
The funeral service will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, November 28, at the First Baptist Church of Athens, with Dr. Frank Granger and Dr. Paul Baxley officiating. Seating is limited to 60 in the sanctuary; provision for an additional 30 persons will be provided in the Fellowship Hall. The service will be livestreamed on the church’s YouTube channel, “First Baptist Church Athens Georgia.” The family will greet friends not attending the service from 9:00-9:30 a.m. Saturday in the Fellowship Hall.
Honorary pallbearers include Tom Cousins, David Dodson, Dr. Charles Eckert, Lillian Giornelli, Dr. Roger Hermanson, Arthur Johnson, Dr. Charles Knapp, Nat Maestri, Bill Mateer, Greg McGarity, David Muia, Peter Shedd, Dr. Harold Sollenberger, and the B&P Sunday school class at First Baptist Church.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial contributions be made in the name of Don and Clara Edwards to the Caesar and Mary Laverne Maestri Scholarship Fund at the University of Georgia, which provides scholarships for students in the Terry College of Business, or to First Baptist Church of Athens, 355 Pulaski St., Athens, GA 30601.
Bernstein Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements.
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