RONALD STONE
Emeritus Professor
California State University, Northridge
The late Ronald Stone, Ph.D., CPA was an emeritus professor of accountancy at California State University, Northridge. Even in the strong Accounting program in the strong David Nazarian College, Stone stood out. He was the faculty advisor for the Accounting Association for almost two decades and was also involved with Beta Alpha Psi and the Management Information Systems Association. Almost single-handedly, over a period of less than ten years, Stone quintupled the awards and scholarships available for CSUN Accountancy and Information Systems students to earn.
Stone went far above the career duties of a tenured professor, especially in the area of student professional development. Specifically, he linked budding accounting students directly to Big Four, mid-tier and small firms. Additionally, he also linked them to CalCPA and AICPA. Stone was active in the accounting education committees and activities for these and other professional organizations, such as the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) and the Association of Certified Fraud Examiner (ACFE).
Stone accompanied students to CalCPA events, IIA talks and ACFE dinners, not just with seniors but in some cases with sophomores who had his Principles class as freshmen. Stone knew and took the extra, personal time, especially in the evening, to provide direct, active participation with professional societies with an aim to help develop world- class accounting professionals.
This type of professional networking came naturally for Stone, and there is no doubt that hundreds of SoCal accountants today would say that he played the most important role at the beginning of their professional careers.
