PERRY MASON
(1 899 – 1964)
By Roscoe Eugene Bryson, Jr. Georgia State University
Perry Mason was born on June 25, 1899, in Chicago. Dr. William A. Paton was probably most responsible for his choosing accounting as a career. Mason did quality work throughout his undergraduate program at the University of Michigan from which he graduated in 1921.
Early in his career he worked with the accounting firms of Kopanak, Hurst and Dalton (1921-1922); and Paton and Ross (1925-1930). While pursuing the doctorate at Michigan, under Paton, Mason demonstrated ability as a teacher. He received the Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1938. Throughout the 1920’s Mason taught at Michigan, except for one year as Assistant Professor at the University of Kansas (1924-1925). He accepted a position as Associate Professor of Accounting at Antioch College in 1930. In 1938 he left Antioch to become Associate Professor of Accounting at the University of California at Berkeley. During World War II Mason worked in the Office of Price Administration as Regional Accountant, and later Regional Economist.
He retired from the University of California in 1954 to join the Research Division of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Mason served as Associate Director of Research under Carman Blough until the creation of the Accounting Principles Board in 1959. In November 1959, he was named Acting Director of Research, and immediately began to build a research staff and make plans for the first group of research studies. When Maurice Moonitz became the Director of Accounting Research in 1960, Mason was designated as his assistant, and served in this position until his retirement in 1963. He died of cancer on January 9, 1964, in Stanford, California.
Perry Mason held CPA certificates in Michigan and California and was one of the few academicians to be selected to the Committee on Accounting Procedure (1951-1954). In 1954 he chaired the AICPA’s Committee on Terminology. He served as Vice President and President of the American Accounting Association and was also a member of many AAA committees including those on National Income Accounting and on the Statement of Cost Principles. He wrote two topical indexes of The Accounting Review. First, he prepared an index for the years 1926-1950; and then five years later a supplement was published.
Perry Mason’s contemporaries describe him as a rather shy man, yet a fairly intense individual, always seeming to be meditating about some aspects of his work. Students were impressed by his ability to make his points understandable by explaining thoroughly each topic. Politically, Mason was a conservative who strongly opposed the New Deal. Unfortunately for accounting historians, Mason was a self-effacing man. He tended to underestimate the importance of his writings to others. Therefore, he left no files for future accountants to study. However, his interest in accounting history is evidenced by the fact that Peragallo’s Origin and Evolution of Double-Entry Bookkeeping was one of the few books that he retained after his retirement.
In 1937, his doctoral dissertation, Principles of Public-Utility Depreciation, was published by the American Accounting Association as its first monograph. Mason presented a discussion of the conceptual bases for depreciation accounting. The most important points made by him were: depreciation accounting and the problem of financing replacements; depreciation should be accounted for even when there is no net profit. He emphasized that depreciation is primarily a function of use, not physical condition.
Mason had a keen interest in the problem of adjusting financial statements for general price-level changes. In 1950, as President of the American Accounting Association, he proposed that a foundation grant be sought, to support a study of this matter. In 1951, the American Accounting Association received a grant from the Merri II Foundation. Dr. Ralph C. Jones was appointed director of the project and he and Dr. Mason worked closely in this research effort. In 1956, the American Accounting Association published a monograph entitled Price-Level Changes and Financial Statements in which Mason explained the techniques for preparing price-level adjusted statements. As a member of the staff of the Accounting Research Division of the American Institute, Mason made a significant contribution to Accounting Research Study No. 6, Reporting the Financial Effects of Price-Level Changes.
This research study led to the issuance of a statement in which the Accounting Principles Board recommended that price-level adjusted statements be presented as a supplement to the conventional financial statements.
In 1961, the Research Division published Mason’s “Cash Flow” Analysis and the Funds Statement. He emphasized that the amount of “cash flow’’ should not be considered as an improvement on net income as an indication of the results of operations. He recommended that the funds statement be treated as a major financial statement, and that the definition of “funds” as “all financial re-sources” be used in preparing the statement. This research study stimulated much discussion about the funds statement and served as the basis for APB Opinion No. 3, “The Statement of Sources and Application of Funds.” On the basis of this opinion, financial analysts began to discourage figures indicating “cash flow per share.”
Largely because he was not a forceful person, many accountants are not aware of Perry Mason’s work. However, he earned his place in the Accounting Hall of Fame, by distinguishing himself as an author, lecturer, researcher, and teacher. He made significant contributions to the continuing effort to produce financial reports of maximum usefulness to shareholders and others.
(Vol. 2, No. 3, p. 8, 1975)
